Deciding My Fate

Chapter 23: The Soul Piper & The Mischievous Little Soul! (1)

Emi's pov

Kagome and I had just gotten back from the Feudal Era, we had gone back to settle things with Inuyasha and make sure that no other demons would try to cross into our time. It was still weird to me that a demon beside Inuyasha and I from the Feudal Era was able to cross into our time, Kagome climbed up the well and I just jumped to the top. "We're back, Gramps! Is the bath water hot? We have to hurry or we'll be late!" Kagome called, my ears twitched as my nose caught onto a familiar scent. Kagome looked at me confused, wondering what I was doing as I sniffed the air. "Did you hear that?" I asked, "Hear what?" Kagome quipped, "Is it so serious that she can't have visitors?" Hojo's voice sounded, making Kagome gasp. "That voice..." Kagome said and I nodded, Hojo must have come to visit Kagome. I moved closer to the door, causing Kagome to slightly panic as I shushed her to listen to the conversation. "Yes... Kagome is laid up in bed." Grandpa said, "What about Emi? Is she doing okay?" I couldn't believe Hojo had not come here alone, he brought the one guy who knows how to fluster me. "Yes, they both are." Gramps said, making both young men pout. "I see. Err..." Hojo held up a blue present in his hand, "This is a hot compress for Kagome..." He said, "And I got this for Emi." Satoshi held out a purple present, Gramps took both presents. "Oh, you two are so thoughtful, Hojo! Satoshi!" He wiped his tears, "My... I mean, their neuralgia will get much better with this." Gramps sniffles, making me roll my eyes. Of course, he made up another stupid sickness to excuse our absence. "We'll be going then," Hojo said, Kagome opened the door slightly and peeped out from the Dry Well structure at them. We watched as Hojo and Satoshi both left, talking amongst themselves and I opened the door as they disappeared. "We need to confront him about these stupid diseases," I muttered, the two of us headed over to Gramps and stood next to him.

"Who has neuralgia?" Kagome asked, crossing her arms.

"Oh, Kagome! Emi! Be happy! You're supposed to be disposed of today, so you both can miss school." I threw my head back in exasperation, I wanted to graduate on time. "What are you saying?! I WANT to go to school desperately!" Kagome exclaimed, "Yeah, me too, Gramps! I want to graduate on time with the rest of our class!" I stated, clenching my fists. "You two are so strange," Gramps said, shaking his head. "Oh, whatever Gramps."

~

Kagome, Eri, Yuka, and I were enjoying ice cream cones. Despite missing so much school, I kept tabs on all my assignments before we left so I managed to finish them and turn them in when we got back. Kagome, on the other hand, seemed to be missing more homework assingments than I thought. It was crazy just how opposite the two of our situations were when we both were in the Feudal Era at the same time. The difference is that I somehow always found myself doing my assignments in the craziest moments, usually in the middle of us traveling with Inuyasha. "Huh? You're going to take a math supplement course, too?" Yuka asked, looking at Kagome in shock. "Yeah.. The teacher told me to." Kagome answered, taking a lick of her ice cream. "We're used to it, but it's a shock to hear that you need it, too. The high school Hojo is applying to is very difficult to get into." Eri said, "What? Don't tell me you're seeing Hojo, Kagome?!" Yuka shouted, "Stop it! Who has time to go out with boys?!" Kagome answered, making me chuckle loudly as I ate my ice cream. "That's not something you want to brag about," Eri stated, making me laugh even more. "Err... Well..." Kagome trailed off and I could see that she was thinking, "What about you Emi?" Yuka shifted her eyes to look at me as I stopped eating my melting ice cream cone.

"What about me?" I asked.

"Are you also taking a supplement class?" Eri quipped.

"No, Emi got lucky. She's been so on top of her assignments and turning them in on time that she won't need any supplement classes. All she has to do is makeup two tests she missed." Kagome explained.

"Wow, talk about scholar material," Eri commented, making me giggle. "Oh, come on. I'm not that scholarly, I just wanted to make sure I didn't fail classes and have to take supplement classes." I shrugged.

As we walked, we came across a playground where we spotted several kids and their mothers playing with fireworks. "Oh, look! Fireworks! So pretty!" Yuka smiled, "It looks like fun! Huh?" Kagome quipped as she looked at the playground, my ears twitched as I scanned the entire area. The one thing that stood out to me was a little girl, she seemed so different from the rest of the kids playing around. The little girl peeped out of a playground structure, she held out a small firecracker which lit up, and spun towards the pile of firecrackers that the kids and their mothers had put on the ground. The entire pile crackles, startling everyone. The little girl gets on top of the structure and laughs. I growled loudly, startling Yuka and Eri as Kagome looked just as upset as I did. That little girl had no right to do any of that, Kagome took off after the little girl making me run after her. When she finally cornered the little girl, "Hold it!" Kagome yelled as I made it over to the two. "What did you do that for?" She asked, which surprised the little girl. I don't think she expected us to be able to see her.

"You can see me?" She asked.

"Yeah, we can see you." I nodded, crossing my arms. There was something about this girl that made me not trust her, but another side of me felt empathy for her. Why is she hanging around the playground, terrorizing the living? She must have been a ghost or a spirit who hadn't ascended because something is keeping her here. "Let's go apologize. I'll go with you." Kagome reached out for the little girl but she slapped her hand away, "None of your business!" She snapped. I grabbed Kagome lightly and pulled her behind me, growling at the spirit as I knew something was about to happen. The little girl gasped as she realized that I was not fully human and if she tried anything else to hurt Kagome, I wasn't going to let it go. Suddenly a ring of flames surrounded the two of us, making me growl louder as my ears twitched. I kept myself standing between the little girl and Kagome, I wasn't going to let this spirit harm her. The girl looked at Kagome and me defiantly and vanished. The ring of flames became smaller and disappeared too, I stopped growling but kept my guard up in case anything else happened. "Kagome! Emi!" I swung around, growling startling the girls but stopped when I realized who it was. "Sorry," I apologized as I helped Kagome to her feet, "Who were you guys talking to?" They asked, there was no way to tell them who we saw because they would think we were crazy. "Huh?" Kagome looked around, noticing that the little girl had disappeared.

The question we both had was, who was she?