LίghT YëaRs by kLöphFer

LίghT YëaRs – Chapter 1

LίghT YëaRs

Chapter 1 – Top Notched

They say growing up is hard. That's rubbish. Anyone can grow up.

The problem is Teenhood – that period of life between your tender 13 years and your naughty 19s. Everything is a mess. You have crushed. You have pimples. You have crushed pimples.

This part of life that takes place in schools – place to study, socialize and sleep (in this order) – is a serious and fatal disease from which people are subjected to high chances of dieing...from embarrassment.

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A Nissan Skyline GTR34 with HKS turbo was spotted ploughing its way through the traffic.

Driver? InuYasha Morimatsu.

InuYasha obtained his license two months ago, and his indulgent father, immediately bought him that car. The boy had always wanted to drive very badly. Today, he was indeed driving very badly. Taking his frustration out on the accelerator as he skidded past another car, he swore again, "Kiss. My. Ass!"

His passenger decided to keep quiet so that the half-breed behind the wheel would concentrate on his current task. 'I had no choice. If only my car was not at the garage...and InuYasha had not crashed the remaining five,' he told himself.

Sesshoumaru Morimatsu was head prefect and captain of the school's kendo team, and both a leader of masculine and feminine. Now this leader was a straight-A student, found it quite disgusting that he had to attend high school that accepted humans. However, he did not hate all humans. His half-brother's friends were alright. Normally, he would keep to himself, considering most humans not worthy speaking to and to everyone else he was a cold heartless demon. Except for one particular human who saw through his ice-cold façade.

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The sky was a heavenly celestial blue, not a single cloud staining its smooth surface. Birds chirped here and there, and the rustle of leaves as the soft breeze made its way through the trees. Kagome peered up at the early morning sky with her cerulean eyes from near the bottom of the long flight of steps in front of an ancient shrine. She was lost in her thoughts.

'What a wonderful day. Great weather. Nothing will go wrong.'

This young lady was the sort of girl no one ever really looked at. It wasn't that Kagome was ugly. She was the cutest little package you could ever imagine. Her beauty had that casual, effortless look. The most outstanding thing about her was that she was not outstanding at all... when she didn't dress up. She was more concern with important things in life than with her appearance. And she wasn't the sort of girl who accepts people for their face value. To everyone who knew her, she possessed that exclusive 'magic glamour'.

Distance noisy booming from a modified car's exhaust and loud music startled her out of her thoughts. Her ride was arriving. She lost her grip on her pencil case; her stationary falling down the steps. The tumbling pencils rolled merrily under the fancy red car that just pulled up over the curb.

"Oh no!" cried the extremely frustrated girl, trying desperately to retrieve her fallen stationary.

A smooth low voice whispered in her ear, "Let me help." The owner of that hypnotic voice was a very tall and fair inu youkai, long silver hair with a hue of blue and really fiery golden eyes. A blue crescent moon adorned his forehead and two magenta stripes on each cheek, completed with pointy elfish ears, deadly claws and his hidden white fluffy tail.

In a composed manner, he retrieved all the stationary, taking a moment to arrange them neatly before handing it back to her.

Kagome flashed a big smile, "Morning." The youkai continued to look at her with an amused smile.

A gruff agitated voice broke that moment. "We haven't got all day! Will you both please get your asses in the car right now!" His ears twitching as he bellowed out.

"Morning to you too InuYasha! You're late!" Kagome chirped in a high tone, as she slid into the car with big roomy seats. So far, Kagome was not able to determine if the strong tremors she was feeling was due to the powerful stereo system that could be heard a mile away or that huge titanium exhaust.

"Don't need you to remind me..." he muttered, thrashing the car into second gear.

InuYasha was grumpy and impatient but nevertheless, a great guy. He wasn't too bright, but generally happy-go-lucky. Yet at this moment, he was not feeling happy, he was going to school which he rather not, and he was not feeling lucky either.

The reason was that InuYasha was LATE. The late InuYasha was late because he woke up late because he had slept late. He had come home late because he left home late. He had left home late because...anyway, you get the idea.

"Well we won't be if you carry on driving at this speed," she retorted.

The passengers of the red GTR34 held their breath. After five amber and three red lights, InuYasha who was feeling much better, drove with ease through the wide-open gate of their high school.

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The auditorium was packed with students of every description, in all shapes and sizes. There were tall ones and small ones, white ones and bright ones, clean ones and lean ones, glad ones and sad ones, itchy ones and bitchy ones.

Best of all, there were male ones and female ones.

Understandably, many students were rolling their eyes at students of opposite sex. Some of the students of the opposite sex picked up these eyes and transmitted them back with equal interest.

"...study hard and do not be easily distracted. Remember your duty as a student is to study," droned the principal. His orientation speech was already twenty-four minutes long surpassing his previous best time of twenty-three minutes. This was even more of an achievement when you consider the fact that his speech was exactly the same, word for word, each and every year.

"...And let us never forget that the challenges ahead facing you will be great, but you must surmount them. Remember, even if you are on the brink of insanity, the school will pull you through."

The students lapsed into thunderous applause. Toutousai Maehara had done it! The principal had with super inhuman will (A/N: he is not human anyway) and endurance, triumph over logic and grammar, and broken the twenty-five minute barrier to set a new welcome address record!

In a corner, a diminutive maiden told her arrogant acquaintance, "Okay so I owe you one." She sighed. The students were hastily hustled out of the auditorium like customers being herded from a departmental store ten minutes before closing time.

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Now there was this particular gang at this prestigious institute. You would see them at every lunch hour, all clustered around the big live oak in the central quad, an invisible barrier of distain for all non-members separating them from the general rabble. We all hated them. We all wanted to be them.

Once rumored that this gang would turn up bad and that they turn up their noses at kids who weren't cool enough. The kid who made that comment was someone who tried to get into the group and didn't make it.

It's a weird thing, groups. At school, if you are not in one, you are nobody. You will feel like you don't fit in. It's kind of sad actually.

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The Morimatsu was one of the wealthiest families in Japan. Striking handsome looks run in this particular family - long silver hair and golden eyes.

InuTaisho Morimatsu, the Lord of the Western Lands was not a scheming despicable businessman. On the contrary, he was prominently honest with all his associates and clients, and had great power and played a big part in contributing to the society. And he took pride in his two young sons...

Hiten Kobayashi, though his family name was very common was no ordinary demons at all. Kobayashi were business partners with the powerful Morimatsu Corporations in the medical field.

Kouga Nomura of the wolf nobility was from a family of great astronauts. The Nomura's have made lots of important discoveries in space; their experiences on space shuttle expeditions were greatly sought after.

Sango Katsuki was a descendent of skillful demons exterminators. That was ages ago. Now they were all accomplished martial art masters. Miroku Fujikawa was from a long line of monks. However, many suspected he was a wolf in disguise. In other words, he was a branded lecher.

Bankotsu Inouke and Jakotsu Chiharu had ancestors who were mercenaries. Both males were subjected to discrimination because of their gender preference of the same sexual category. In conservative Asian cultures, gays or lesbians were still not fully accepted in the society.

Kikyou Shimizu and Kagome Higurashi were distant cousins, descendents of holy priests and priestess. Striking resemblance in their appearances was uncanny. Only subtle differences like their eyes and height were you able to distinguish them.

Needless to say this cluster was a weird combination altogether – Demons, Half-breed and Humans mixing together like it was the most natural thing to do.

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At lunch break, the boys were already seated at their usual place at the open-air porch. Japanese pop music, piped through hidden speakers, mixed with the quiet rustling of the nearby shaded trees.

InuYasha whistled, and then waved when he caught the girls' attention. A smirk spreading across his face as he eyed his girlfriend, in a maxi flower-print dress, sauntered up into his arms.

"It's my turn to feed you today," he cooed softly into her ears.

"Hey mutt-face! Spare me your flirting. My eyes are going blind because of all these pollution!" Kouga snared.

"You're just jealous," Kikyou said wryly.

As the rest of the group settled down at the table, Gatenmaru Abe, the lunch monitor went past their table checking for litters. He smacked Kouga's head from behind, who was in the midst of throwing straw wrappers at InuYasha from across the table.

Wham!

"Ouch!" He whined.

"Detention! Might I remind you, Kouga Nomura that this is the third time this week you have been guilty of an infraction. You will have to stay after school for three days."

Kouga stared at the lunch monitor. "I guess that was the last straw for you."

The gang laughed. The lunch monitor did not.

"Rudeness. Now you have four days of detention."

Kouga smiled at him. "Why, thank you. Want to flip a coin and make it double or nothing?"

"Gambling is not permitted within school premises." With that Gatenmaru left as soon as he spotted 'trouble' at another table.

Kagome looked at Kouga, baffled. "What did you do that for?"

Kouga grinned, showing his white pristine canine tooth. "Ayame Seiji in tenth grade got a week's detention for using her typhoon spinning to situate the vice-principal onto the flagpole. I've been wanting to spend some time with her for a long time. Maybe now that we'll be in detention together, she'll notice me."

"Couldn't you have just smiled at her in the hall or give her flowers or something?" Sango asked.

"I've tried that already. Now it's time for more drastic measures. This is my last year here and I want to make full use of this time to enjoy my-"

"Yeah Wolfy! I couldn't agree more," InuYasha interrupted.

The rest of the gang rolled their eyes. InuYasha and Kouga were always engaged in petty arguments. Their opinions were rarely within the same parameter. They were always at each other's throat at every single chance they've got.

"That applies to you, Sesshoumaru. Look at Hiten. Girls are flocking to him like bees to pollen. He's making his best out of it. The girls are crazy about you. You have your own little fan club for goodness sake. You should go out there and get yourself a chick," Kouga went on.

The two loggerheads ranted on about Sesshoumaru's lack of interest in females for a few more minutes until Kagome's failed attempt to conceal her giggles. The male lead of the currently hot conversation shot her a deadly glare.

"You have so many to choose from. Rumors are spreading that you swing the other way." Bankotsu and Jakotsu looked up from their lunch. "Sorry. No offense bros." He raised his hands in defeat. "Can't you lower your exceedingly high expectations?" Kouga drew a breath before racing on. "Bet you're still a virgin." The wolf demon winked, grinning evilly.

Sesshoumaru scowled. "I'm not saying one way or the other."

"That's it!" Kagome stated harshly, slamming her right hand on the table. "End of conversation! Respect one's privacy!"

At Kagome's sudden display of outburst and the deadly annoying aura blazing around her, wolf-boy knew her words were final; decided to stop his insolence. Kagome returned to nibble on her sandwich with one hand while shaking the other furiously, attempting to relieve the flaming heat from the impact. Sesshoumaru, who was sitting to her right, instinctively took her 'injured' hand and began to massage it.

Miroku grinned in a perverted teenage way. "Man, I wish to have my own 'litter' of fan club. All the girls of course! Then I wanna get laid," he whined wistfully, gazing up the sky.

The girls had enough of the guys' conversation of getting hitched. "I think he likes you," said Sango, changing subject, nudging Kagome in her left ribs, as Hojo sat down a few tables way and smiled at Kagome. Sesshoumaru was listening intently to where this conversation was going though his face revealed nothing.

"He smiles at everyone," she replied.

"And he's running for president," InuYasha snapped, scrutinizing Kagome from head to toe to head again.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Kagome asked, reading InuYasha's mind.

"It's hard to attract attention in those cotton sleeveless tops, sweaters and jeans...you wear them all the time," stated InuYasha.

"Has it occurred to your thick skull that I don't want to attract any attention? Besides, there are plenty of girls out there for him and I'm glad I'm not one of them," she huffed.

"Kags, you are pretty inside out. Have more confidence in yourself," Hiten said.

"You are a perfect ten girl... if you would pay attention to your looks," his honey eyes gleaming with amusement.

"I think you are a perfect ten as well." Kagome smiled sweetly.

"Y-you d-do?" InuYasha was taken aback.

"And that's just your I.Q."

InuYasha's grin faded, staring at Kagome as the gang burst out laughing. Sesshoumaru arched one of his sculptured brows for a moment and a corner of his lips rose slightly, "Living with the half-breed under the same roof, I can vouch for Kags that her words are wisdom." His eyes sparkled with the adoration that always seemed to creep into them when Kagome was around.

Kagome resisted the urge to hit her idiotic friend, and smiled at the irony, "You'll never know." She sighed inwardly. What could she expect? They were only teenagers.

The school bell rang. Everyone was finishing up their last bite and heading in different directions but not before promising to meet up that weekend for their weekly get-together. Sesshoumaru whose hands were still clasp with Kagomes', gently pulled her closer, whispering into her ear, "I have come for your long overdue debt. Today after school. No room for negotiation."

Groaning, Kagome freed herself from her captor's hold, bounding down the cafe, narrowly brushing by an approaching couple barely noticing her. "You know how I love to grace you with my presence!" she shouted back as an afterthought, still running.

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End of Chapter 1

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