Family Secrets by Tiegrsi
Something's Different!
Kagome Higurashi woke up with the worst migraine she had ever had in her life; which was saying a lot since she was given to leading a life that dealt with danger and the possibility of head trauma on a near daily basis. In a fog of pain and sleep she reached blindly for the little white bottle of aspirin she knew was on the stand next to her headboard. She kept it there always along with a glass of water and a box of tissues, just in case...and now she was glad of it. Finding it at last, she grabbed the bottle fiercely. Her pounding temples screamed in agony as the sound of the pills noisily rolling around in their container reached her ears. It seemed to amplify and echo while she fought with the child safety mechanism on the cap.
After what seemed like an eternity the cap finally came off with a "pop!", and the girl was able to shake out two small white pills into the palm of her hand. Carefully returning the bottle to the nightstand to avoid further rattling, she then grabbed her glass of water. Quickly she popped the pills in her mouth and tilted her head up as she followed them with a large gulp of the fresh, cool liquid. She winced at the chalky taste of medicine the pills left on her sensitive taste buds. Had her head not hurt so badly at the time, she would have wondered why she could taste the medicine so acutely.
Task completed Kagome returned the glass to it's precarious spot on the edge of her night stand and rolled over. She buried her head under her fluffy pillow in an attempt to block the sunlight that was already streaking menacingly in through her small bedroom window. When it seemed sleep was finally weighing her down once again, she sighed inwardly and embraced the darkening fog of her mind.
Sleep never seemed to last long enough, however. Within an hour Kagome found herself conscious once again, having been pounced out of her restless sleep by a rather overweight feline.
"Buyo, get OFF ME!" she admonished her family's pet. Buyo yawned apathetically and hunkered down into his chosen resting place, forcing Kagome to wake up fully and physically remove him from her stomach. 'At least my headache is gone', she realised as she sat up.
'What on earth did I do to deserve that migraine?' she thought to herself. A little voice somewhere deep inside her mind chided her. 'As if life needs a reason to rip you a new one!'
'Life has a funny way of doing that to you', she admitted to herself.
After three years of flipping back and forth through the ages of time, Kagome and her friends on the other side of the ancient well had finally managed to defeat Naraku. The final fight was intense, and only through a huge group effort had they finally managed to send the evil hanyou to hell, along with the last of his incarnates. It would not have been possible had it not been for surprise allies that had joined the fray.
Kikyou had been the first, walking on to the field with an arrow already notched and aimed at Naraku. All but Inuyasha (who'd known she was nearby) had been surprised by her sudden appearance. The amazement everyone felt in seeing Kikyou fighting alongside them was paled in comparison when their next champion arrived. Inuyasha's elder, half brother Sesshomaru had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. His sudden appearance had caused a lull in the fight as Inuyasha verbally attacked him. The hanyou's foul attitude quickly dissipated, however, when Naraku took advantage of his distracted state and tried to get at Kagome with a long tentacle. Sesshomaru had used his youkai speed to dart in and save her from an untimely death, and Inuyasha had shortly decided to pay more attention to Naraku and less to his sibling rivalry.
The huge group effort had paid off well, in the end. Even Naraku's restorative powers couldn't keep up with the constant barrage from the miniature army. Two synchronized sacred arrows, one from Kikyou and one from Kagome herself, had been combined with the Backlash Wave from Inuyasha's sword Tetsusaiga and the mighty demonic force from Sesshomaru's sword Tokijin. Even Sesshomaru's impish retainer, Jaken, had joined in on the final barrage, issuing a blast of fire from his weapon, the Staff of Two Heads.
All that had been left after that terrible onslaught had been pieces of flesh, pulsating as Naraku tried to pull himself back together. Kagome had been quick to point out the largest chunk, in her eyes glowing with an eerie black-violet light, and she directed Inuyasha to retrieve the almost complete Shikon no Tama from it before Naraku could regenerate. With the jewel back in safe possession, Miroku had taken care of what was left, using his Kazaana to suck the tattered pieces of what was left of Naraku's body into the void. The houshi's wind tunnel had sealed itself up and returned his right hand to it's original form as the last piece of broken flesh was pulled in, proving that the world was finally free of Naraku and his curses for the rest of eternity. Both Kikyou and Sesshomaru had vanished shortly after Naraku's defeat.
Kagome remembered the celebration they'd all had after the battle. The affair had been small and quiet, everyone remembering what they had gone through and how far they had come. They discussed their plans for the future now that Naraku had been rendered naught more than a memory to haunt their dreams. Plans were made but pushed aside temporarily as they all had realised the job was not yet done. They still had three shards to obtain, and no one was looking forward to the task.
They had taken nearly a year to search for a way to remove the Shikon shard from Sango's little brother, Kohaku, without killing the young boy. A search that ended in pain and tragedy as the boy decided the fruitless quest should come to an end and removed the shard from himself, effectively committing suicide to help his friends return order to the world. Sango, understandably, had taken it the hardest. She had been mortified, dropping into a catatonic state for nearly two months. It was another three after that before the taijiya began acting something like her old self. Luckily Miroku had been there to help Sango back to reality with promises of marriage as soon as the Shikon no Tama was complete and finally destroyed.
After that there was the disaster of trying to talk Kouga into peacefully handing over the last two shards, the ones that remained stubbornly embedded in his legs. The persistent wolf youkai had finally agreed to giving up his precious shards if he could have just on thing in return. Happy to think they could get the daunting task of completing the jewel of four souls over with, everyone had agreed before they found out exactly what Kouga's bargaining chip was. As it turned out, the thing he had wished for was Kogome's acceptance of a mating proposal. That was immediately turned down by Kagome and earned Kouga a few harsh words and hard knocks from Inuyasha. Kouga had taken off when the hanyou proclaimed that a nice windscar attack was a much more suitable exchange. Five months later the wolf youkai had been forced by fate to hand over the shards of his own free will. It seemed the female wolf youkai, Ayame, had given birth to twin pups, and refused to let Kouga see his offspring until he gave up the shards (earning herself quite a few brownie points from Inuyasha in the process).
Of course, that left everyone to find a way to rid the universe of the once again whole Shikon no Tama. Inuyasha had made it clear a while back that he no longer wanted to become a full demon. Sure, it had taken years for the concept to sink into his head, but Inuyasha had finally understood what Kagome and everyone else had been trying to tell him. He was a half-demon, not a human and yet not youkai, and damn anyone to the deepest pit of hell who had a problem with it. He was fine just the way he was, and Kagome couldn't have been more proud of him.
The problem that remained was what to wish for. With Inuyasha's decline to use the shard for himself, Kagome had been left the task to come up with a suitable wish. She had played with the idea of bringing Kohaku back, but Sango had dissuaded her quickly. Though it had pained her to lose her brother, she felt it would be wrong to rob him of whatever peace he had found after suffering for so long.
After nearly a week of going over ideas in her mind, Kagome had thought of the perfect wish. With the best intentions Kagome had truly made a selfless wish, sending the jewel out of existance with a plea that Kikyou could once again become human. It had truly been a noble wish, but it had come with a high price for the selfless miko. The once dead priestess' return to humanity shortly gave way to Inuyasha's public announcement of his desire to mate the miko. A desire that was fulfilled on the same day that Sango and Miroku made their coupling official. Kagome still wasn't sure how she had found the strength to endure watching her crush of nearly five years return to his first love, but somehow she had managed sitting through the ceremony quietly, baring the pain with as much dignity as she could muster.
Directly after the double wedding/mating, Kagome had fled back through the well to her own era, taking a whole month away from her friends to give Sango and Miroku time alone and to give herself time to settle her emotions over the matter.
She was lucky to be able to flee back to her own era at all. She had resigned herself ages before to the idea that once the Shikon no Tama had been dispatched, she would probably not be able to time travel any longer. She had dismissed all thoughts of that fact, however, as she had spent so long agonizing over the perfect wish, and it had not occurred to her what the consequences might be. Amazingly the well had let the miko pass through, leaving everyone to guess that it was because Kagome was the one who had destroyed the jewel and so somehow was still connected to it's power.
At long last she had returned to the feudal era and her friends, swearing sincerely that she was happy for Inuyasha and Kikyou and bore no grudge. She had made up her mind while at home that Inuyasha was never meant to have truly been hers in the first place, and came to the conclusion that the hanyou's pairing with the statuesque priestess was for the best. Now Kagome's relationship with Inuyasha was completely plutonic, treating each other like the closest of siblings. She had even managed to become friends with the re-born priestess, who's personality had vastly improved since her flesh had been returned. She was no longer only driven by hate, anger, loss, and sadness, and she and Kagome had actually become quite fond of each other.
It was liberating, she mused as she fiddled with a strand of her hair, the peace she felt in the wake of Naraku's demise and the decisions she had made since. No longer would anyone have to worry about what new scheme the evil hanyou was plotting, or the dangers they would have to face to get the next jewel shard. Sango and Miroku had made plans to build a house in Edo near Kaede, and Inuyasha and Kikyou had made similar plans. Kagome herself had finally found the time to finish high school and hone her miko powers.
She had failed her junior year due mostly to the strain of the group's final effort with Naraku. The year after the evil creature had been disposed of, however, Kagome had spent much of her time in her own era, catching up with schoolwork. She had spent many nights complaining to her family about how much work she had to catch up on, but was rewarded for her diligence when she graduated just a few months after her classmates. She had opted not to go to college, realising that she preferred to spend most of her time in the feudal era with her friends. Besides, her major was history, and living it was much better than reading it in a book!
With the help of a now human and amazingly friendly Kikyou, disciplining her powers had become much easier. Kagome had long ago surpassed the abilities of her old friend, Kaede, leaving both of the women at a loss. Almost all the time that Kagome had spent in that year not devoted completely to school work, she had studied, trained, and meditated on her miko powers. Kaede had long ago taught her basic protections and barriers, but Kikyou had opened new doors. The re-born miko had shown Kagome the more trying aspects of healing and even different spells she could use on her arrows.
Pushing all these thoughts aside, Kagome settled on thoughts of the day ahead. Today was her 21st birthday, after all! Her family would surely be planning something special. She had celebrated with her friends on the other side of the well a few days ago, knowing that she would actually be home for the event.
Yawning, Kagome swung her legs out from under the covers and sat up on the edge of her bed, stretching her arms out to the sides in an attempt to wake her still sleepy muscles. Standing up, she took a deep breath. 'Mmm..' she thought, 'fresh eggs and tea. I can even smell some chocolate cake!' The miko's stomach rumbled softly in anticipation. 'Hmm..what's that other smell?'
Kagome scanned the room for the source of the other scent she was getting; like fresh apples with light overtones of cherry blossoms. She took another whiff and was suddenly overcome with scents. Grandpa's hair tonic, her mother's favorite lilac perfume, musty books and dust...not to mention the reek of her own dirty laundry hamper. There were some other scents, as well, familiar but unidentifiable.
'My nose sure is sensitive today', she thought absently, trying to ignore the string of worry that was creeping up her spine.
Realising she was wasting the morning away, Kagome stretched one final time and grabbed her hairbrush from the floor next to her bag, (which she had procrastinated in unpacking). She sauntered off to her little bathroom to follow through with her morning rituals.
While brushing her teeth, the miko thought she noticed something was strange about the way the bristles skated across her pearly whites, but shook the thought off in favor of wondering why her toothpaste seemed to be overpoweringly strong that morning. Knowing mouthwash might be even worse than her Colgate, she finished up by rinsing her mouth with tepid water, spitting the sudsy liquid into her sink basin when she was done. As she always had after a good scrubbing, she ran her tongue over her freshly cleaned teeth.
"OUCH!"
Grimacing, Kagome wondered how she had managed to bite her tongue. She winced harder when the smell and taste of her own blood flooded her senses. Looking up in the mirror to inspect the damage, her expression changed from light humor to complete shock.
'What the hell?!' Kagome's mind screamed. She had curled her lips back while examining her tongue only to find a set of elongated, very sharp and very disturbing canines. 'Those were definitely not there last night!' her mind continued. She stared at her reflection dumbly as all thoughts of celebrating her birthday with her family flew out of her mind. She went from shock to fear in a split second. 'I have to go back! Something's wrong!'
The young woman dashed back into her room and grabbed a bra, panties, t-shirt, and a pair of jeans from her dresser. She took off her night shirt with a quick over the head tug when something soft tickled her lower back. Jumping in fright she spun on her heel expecting to see something ferocious standing right behind her, only to find she was completely alone. The tickling sensation on her skin a second time made her think something else might be going on, and she looked over her shoulder into the full length mirror hanging off her bedroom door. 'GREAT!' her inner voice shrieked, 'Now I have a TAIL! How am I going to explain this to Mom?'
Sure enough, just above the upper seam of her pajama pants Kagome was attached to a length of black, furry tail. As she stared at it, the appendage jerked, seemingly of it's own volition, and Kagome couldn't help but think of Shippo. Biting back a curse she had learned from Inuyasha, Kagome put her clothes on in haste, noting that her clothing didn't fit properly anymore and carefully tucking her new-found tail up and under her shirt in case anyone saw her on her way out to the well.