Liberate by Lian

Humble

Liberate

Summary: Between suddenly realizing exactly how out-of-place she is in the Feudal Era and the pressing matter of her educational future Higurashi Kagome gets no breaks. But that won't deter her spirit! It'll just cloud her judgment and shorten her life-span.

Prelude – Amidst Humble Beginnings

In some distant part of her brain, Kagome assumed she'd known it all along. The adoring looks, the comforting gestures, their constant need to walk next to each other while traveling- it was all so obvious now. She had to wonder how it could've possibly taken so long for her to comprehend. How long had the betrayal – a betrayal so deep, so scarring, so utterly despondent to Kagome's wide, childish eyes – been going on? How come no one had told her?!

Kagome sighed, laying her head on the cool wood of the desk located in room 3B. 3B, sure it sounded innocent enough, but Kagome knew better. It was a room filled with evil, filled with hours of unrelenting pain, filled with the horrified – silent, but still horrified! – cries of her peers. It was the room referred to as '3B' but to Kagome, nay, the entire student body, it was pure hell. Kagome's head lifted and she settled back against the hard wood of her chair's back, sighing at her own foolishness. It wasn't so much the room she hated as-

"Welcome to another 90 minutes of the exciting world of Chemistry!" Her teacher exclaimed jovially, hot cup of coffee in hand and bright smile plastered on her painted lips. A quiet groan escaping her, Kagome rose with the rest of her classmates, returning the greeting politely before once more resting in her seat. Her eyes already drooping with the weight of how 'CH4 + 2 Cl --> CH3Cl + HCl involves partial oxidation of the methane' her vision slid to the window at her left.

Really, she was just distracting herself from the real issue. His betrayal. That's really what it was; it couldn't be summed up any other way. Kagome leaned her cheek against her palm and heaved yet another sigh, her shoulders dropping. And she'd trusted him so! Sure she didn't expect Shippou to remain solely in her care for the rest of his – or, considering the youkai heritage, her – life, but couldn't he at least have given her a few more years? He was like a little brother to her. Except he didn't tell on her when she missed a test, and he didn't do that annoying thing with his teeth that Souta did. Shippou was- well, he was like an improved edition. She loved her brother, she always did and always would, but Souta didn't have those big swirling eyes like Shippou. Big swirling eyes that had been fixed on Sango the past few days.

Kagome hunched further down in her seat, resting her chin on her folded arms. Of course, she was over-reacting. But over-reacting was way more fun than under-reacting and had become a habit of hers, a way to escape the underlying pain of what was really going on in Sengoku Jidai. Because it really wasn't just Shippou's attention that had waned, it was Miroku's, Inuyasha's, even Myouga had been less persistent at greeting her the last time he'd paid the group a visit. Yes, she was being shallow, and yes, she was once again over-reacting, but Kagome had slowly begun to feel isolated in her own group. It wasn't that they were upset or even mildly annoyed with her – they probably didn't even realize what had been happening as of late – it was simply that they were warriors of a different era and Kagome was, well, far from the Feudal Era and even farther from being a warrior.

And that was where her problem lie, but Kagome couldn't help that she didn't have the proper nature to destroy living, breathing creatures, even if they were hideous demons. Her problem was while the others sat around the campfire discussing the best way to be rid of a wild raccoon youkai, Kagome was left staring at her text books with absolutely no enthusiasm. Raising her head to chew on the end of her thumb, Kagome turned back to the head of the class, staring the teacher's moving lips without hearing her words. Oh, sure, Kagome could train her Magic Miko Powers into a formidable defense, but then she would be seen as even more of a shadow of Kikyou. And if that did happen and Kagome wasn't terribly successful as a priestess, then she'd just be handing Inuyasha a silver platter of material to mock her with.

"Oi, wench! You're supposed to hit the attacking demons, not the innocent demons hiding in the bush!"

Yes, Kagome was certain, something had to be done. But the question was what?

Perhaps she could bring in another member to the group? A member that didn't fight and knew geometry? Hm...

"Hey guys! This is my cousin Ai! She's my age and will probably get kidnapped just as much as me, maybe even more so since she doesn't have any special abilities, but she makes the best oden in the whole world!"

For some strange reason Kagome just couldn't see them taking to that... And there were two problems. One, Inuyasha didn't like new people. Heck, he barely tolerated them. And, two, she didn't have a cousin named Ai who made amazing oden.

So. What else could she do?

Kagome blinked, sudden realization smacking her in the face like a blow from one of Naraku's tentacles.

She was trying to fit in. Fitting in was something that her fellow teens did presently, in her school, in her era. Fitting in was certainly not an activity you engaged yourself in while sitting around a campfire, picking youki organs from your hair. It was simply mind-boggling to try to think of someone from the Sengoku Jidai playing a game so they could be better accepted in their environment.

Kagome scratched her head, furrowing her brows quietly.

It would be like a samurai warrior sitting down at a table with all his battle-hardened buddies and saying, "Yes, I've killed an eagle youkai before! In fact, I've, um, I've killed five- no, ten!" And then finding out that there was no such thing as eagle youkai.

Yanking herself from her musings, Kagome looked up at the clock. Ten minutes had passed and now the teacher as talking animatedly about the effects of Oxygen on the slowly receding blah blah blah-

Slapping a hand to her forehead, Kagome reminded herself that she was failing this class, and really needed to be paying attention. Or risk getting her television rights taking away.

But, really, how much do I actually watch TV?

Ugh, that wasn't the point. Pay attention!

Looking down at the almost-blank page in her notebook – the notebook where notes were supposed to go, genius – Kagome gasped, horrified. For the past ten minutes she'd been doodling cartoon characters of her friends from the Feudal Era mercilessly killing her chemistry teacher. Ripping the page from her notebook, she crumpled it up and prayed for forgiveness. It wasn't like she meant it or anything. And besides, nobody would ever-

A throat cleared next to her and she stiffened, her spine straightened almost painfully. Kagome's head turned without the permission of her body, and her eyes were met with the outstretched hand of her teacher. Miss Yamamoto made a gesture with her fingers to hand the paper over and Kagome's head dropped, placing the page in her teacher's evil, evil paws.

The teacher unfurled the paper and slowly went over the contents, her eyebrows rising as each second ticked by. With each tick of Miss Yamamoto's eyebrows, Kagome's future looked bleaker and bleaker.

"Well, Miss Higurashi, I have to say your attention to detail is most refreshing," Kagome assumed she was referring to the expertly drawn taijiya's outfit on chibi Sango and little Inuyasha's valiant cry of 'Kaze no Kizu!'. "Perhaps if you had placed as much effort into your mid-term paper, you wouldn't be failing my class."

Oh, ouch. Did she have to use the 'F' word? Kagome whimpered and looked up at her teacher through her bags sheepishly, not at all liking the dark look on Miss Yamamoto's face. If only her sensei knew that the brown stains on the corner of the second page of her mid-term paper had been Kagome's own blood, maybe she would've been a little more lenient!

"In fact, I think I have just the thing for you, Miss Higurashi! Instead of giving you detention, seeing as you've never had it before," Oh, sweet karma! "I'm going to make you stay after school as part of our tutoring program!" Blasted, stupid, foul, stupid-!

Miss Yamamoto began walking once more the front of the room, her heels clicking quietly on the tiled floor. "Don't be late, Higurashi, or I will be forced to give you proper punishment."

A few of her classmates released hushed giggles, and Yuka shot Kagome a sympathetic look over her shoulder while Erri grinned at her, having been a part of the after-school program. Traitor, Kagome thought, dreading the future perils she would have to face in a room filled with failing delinquents and a few 90-something percentile students that took pity on them. And wanted the extra-credit, community-service hours in hopes of getting into a better college and graduating and getting a degree and it's the Japanese student's dream! Kagome snorted placing the tip of her pencil to her notebook, but not writing anything.

When had it stopped being her dream, anyway?

Her eyes focused on the formulas written on the white board to the right of Miss Yamamoto, and she began copying them with half her awareness, her mind still drifting lazily through the Sengoku Jidai.

Was it when she first fell down the well? No, at that time she'd wanted nothing less than to go back to her own time and forget that had ever happened. Actually, the first time her present-day dreams had begun to wane was when Miroku had joined the group. His knowledge had been so much more vast then her own - he'd even known some of the answers to her seemingly-ungraspable geometry worksheet – that she was amazed he hadn't had any schooling.

Yeah, that was about where she'd stopped placing all her focus on her education. Most the time when she told Inuyasha she needed to go home for a test she really meant she wanted to go home for her family.

The hot baths were just an added luxury, you see. She'd never go home for just a bath. Really.

The formulas' copied and her attention-span capacity for the day officially met Kagome's gaze turned to the window once more. The day was surprisingly warm for spring, a blanket of sunshine settling over Tokyo in a comforting gesture, melting away the evidence of the heavy rain they'd had the past couple days. With the sudden oppressing weight of the thick, dark clouds gone Kagome could breath easier it seemed. The last time it had rained so heavily she'd been in China, in Hunan, and she'd feared the small remote home she was staying in was going to wash away.

Miss Yamamoto made a particularly excited point, smacking her pointer on the white-board while smiling happily. Kagome jumped in her seat and turned forward, her eyes wide. After realizing it was just a synthesis equation, Kagome leaned her chin in her palm. How could any body be so excited about Chemistry? She wondered if Miss Yamamoto had ever dropped below the 96th percentile in her high school career, and doubted it. Closing her eyes mournfully, Kagome's foot twitched beneath her desk. Remember the days you used to be in the 98th percentile? Her mind offered wistfully, dramatically pointing at last years records and reminding her how her mother had displayed her end-of-the-year term paper proudly on the fridge for at least two months, pointing it out to all the guests who visited the family.

Yes, back in the day Kagome had been many things. She'd been an A student, she'd had the respect of her teachers and classmates, she'd even been on the student's competing academic team.

Mm, first place.

Her head hitting the desk, Kagome drug her thoughts back to a safer place. Back to finding a solution to her recent loneliness in the past. Okay, so maybe Kagome was taking things a little too melodramatically, but since Sango's recent confession of her feelings of inadequacy towards Kohaku, her family, and the entire taiji-ya profession, Shippou had made his soul duty to comfort her. And Kagome was so, so proud of him. But that left Kagome with, well, no one.

Except, of course, Kouga-kun.

Kagome groaned and buried her hands in her face. Kouga was no longer in his 'you're-my-woman-and-only-my-woman' mode. Oh, no, he'd graduated. Yes, he still pined for her affections, but it seemed that lately he'd taken a different approach. An approached Kagome liked to refer to as his 'I'm-your-bestest-friend-and-you-will-tell-me-everything' mode.

It was worse.

If only I could meet a boy that looked just like Kouga, but was mute.

A vision of a mute Kouga grabbing her hands and waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively surged through her mind and she sighed.

Maybe paralyzed, too...

An idea slammed into Kagome with the force of a brick wall and Kagome shot up in her seat, her eyes fixed on the desk in front of her giddily. That was it! She needed to find a new love interest! A slow smile curved her lips and she rubbed her hands together. Then she'd have someone to confide in, to complain to, to offer help and ask for suggestions, to-

"Miss Higurashi!"

Kagome blinked and looked around the room, realizing she'd been standing up and pumping her fist in the air in victory.

"What do you think you're doing?!" The teacher exclaimed angrily, her hands on her hips.

Kagome slowly lowered her fist, then her head, then tried to lower her body into the seat at her desk-

Only to realize that it had fallen back when she'd shot up.

Now, she was sitting on the ground in a surprised heap with her legs sprawled and her skirt-

Conveniently flashing half the population of the class.

Oh, well, there's a great way to end her discovery of a brilliant plan.

She stood and yanked her skirt down, blushing furiously at the grins and leers of some of the boys on the right side of the room. Her eyes turned reluctantly to Miss Yamamoto again and the teacher pointed to the door leading to the outside of the room, and Kagome whimpered. She was being sent out of the room! This had never happened before! It was- Oh, my god.

It was going to go on her school records! Kagome focused, with tears brimming in her eyes, on the teacher. "But- but-"

"Out! You've disrupted my class twice now!"

Grabbing her books and walking dejectedly toward the front of the room, Kagome offered no more protest.

"Hey, Yamamoto-sensei, I've been pretty disruptive this year," a boy named Yukio – a boy who was known as a playboy and who had been seated on the right side of the class – said. "Don't you think I should go out, to?"

The teacher rolled her eyes and turned back to the book in her hand, trying to find her lost spot.

The echo of the door closing behind her made Kagome snivel once more, and she leaned against the wall tiredly.

It was all Inuyasha's fault.

If she and him had ended up together like they were supposed to instead of Kikyou coming back to life then Kagome wouldn't have started feeling alone, wouldn't have needed to come up with such a plan, thus she certainly wouldn't be out here right now, wishing – for, quite possibly, the first time ever – to be inside Chemistry.

Psh, I wasn't listening anyways.

Well, now what should she do? The only rooms that were open in the school were the gym and the library, and Kagome would need a hall pass to get into those. This was only her third class, but...

With a sad sigh she trudged toward the school's main entrance, taking the long way to avoid passing the school office.

It was a sign. It was a stupid, useless plan and I know my friends still care about me. Who cares if they don't ask me how my school is going as much anymore or ask about my ideas towards a battle-plan... or ask if I think we need to strengthen our defense on the right... or ask if I think Tetsusaiga should go behind Hiraikotsu because it'll help strengthen the attack, or-

Well, then. It was decided.

I'm going man hunting in the present era, and then everything will be great. Yeah, everything will be perfect...

Why then did she suddenly have a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach?

Note: Dear god, I shouldn't be doing this. I really, really shouldn't. And I know that. But will that stop me? Of course not. I'm stupid and decided today I'd write a fanfiction. I probably won't even finish this. Hell, it hasn't even been edited. Sigh.

Eh, I suppose it won't be the first time I placed myself on public display in hopes of not being torn down in a mix of e-mails and reviews and- No, wait. This'll be the first time.

Please, be nice. And, please, leave reviews. No, I won't beg. But, you know, it's the Good Samaritans choice!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. I don't think I could handle the financial responsibility. I'm immature like that.