Chapter 1

Olympic Trials

          For Kagome Higurashi, it was an ordinary day, just like the way it used to be. Here she was, sitting in class, taking in all the usual sights of school life. This was comforting to her, a relief from all the violence and peril that goes on in the feudal world. She promised InuYasha to be back in feudal Japan by the weekend, but for now she could forget about whether InuYasha was more interested in Kikyo than her, and if he preferred that dead girl to her...

          …So perhaps Kagome could not completely put InuYasha out of her mind. But at least this was her way of taking a vacation, even if it meant having to take tests.

          The bell rang, and Kagome grabbed her backpack, leaving the classroom, where she met up with her friends, Yuka, Eri and Ayumi.

          “It’s club time!” Yuka chirped.

          “We’re off to the photography club, Kagome!” Eri added.

          “What club are you in again, Kagome?” Ayumi asked.

          “The archery club,” Kagome responded, with a bit of disappointment in her voice.

          “Well, we’ll be seeing you!” Eri said.

          “Bye!” Yuka said.

          Kagome sighed. She knew she could have chosen to be with her friends, which would have perhaps been more fun for her, but she felt a strong urge to be part of the archery club. After all, she had become much better of an archer during her time in the feudal era. Why waste that talent? It was one of the few times, if any, Kagome could truly be considered the best at what she did in the human world.

          “Another perfect end!” an archery instructor exclaimed. “Miss Higurashi, you’re amazing!”

          Kagome just shrugged and brushed her hand through her hair. To her, hitting the bullseye was to be expected; anything less was a disappointment. She walked over to a bench and sat down, taking a rest, when she noticed two men in suits talking to the archery instructors. It seemed unusual to her, but she chose not to worry about it, instead staring at the other archers in her club.

          “Miss Higurashi!” the first archery instructor shouted.

          “Yes?” Kagome said, startled.

          “I want you to meet some people,” the archery instructor told her.

          The instructor then introduced Kagome to the men wearing suits, who he told her were members of the Japanese Olympic Committee. Kagome nodded her head, but looked confused. What did they have to do with her?

          “Miss Higurashi,” the first Olympic committee member said, “we would like to extend an invitation to you to join us this weekend at the Japanese Olympic Trials.”

          “Our nation has never won a gold medal in archery, but from what we have just seen, you could very well become the first,” the other committee member added.

          The Olympics… Kagome thought. That never crossed my mind before now… but I’m surely not that good, am I? Anyway, I can’t make InuYasha mad by leaving him even longer than five days...

          “Thank you,” Kagome replied, “but I really have an important place to be this weekend, and I’m not sure I’m good enough to be an Olympic archer, anyway…”

          “Miss Higurashi!” the first committee member exclaimed. “This is about your country! Think of the honor you could bring to all the people of Japan!”

          “We have watched you practice today, and from seeing your scores, we are sure that you have the talent to compete with the best in the world,” the other committee member added.

          Kagome thought it over. Okay, maybe InuYasha can wait… just a little longer…

          “Okay, I will,” Kagome told the committee members. “I hope to make our nation proud.”

          “The Olympic trials?” Kagome’s brother, Sota, asked. “Are you really that good?”

          “Well, that’s what those men told me,” Kagome replied. “I don’t really think so, but I guess it’s worth a try.”

          “The Olympics?” Kagome’s grandfather said. “Well, it seems we have another athlete in the family! Let me tell you about my time in the Olympics. Back in 1964, when the Olympics were in Tokyo…”

          Kagome began to eat the food that her mother served her, while tuning out yet another one of her grandfather’s stories. She was more concerned about how InuYasha would feel…

          InuYasha stared at the setting sun while sitting on the edge of the Bone-Eater’s Well. He knew he had counted the days correctly since Kagome left, and this was indeed the evening she promised to come back- a day which Kagome dubbed “Friday.” But there was no Kagome to be seen. He at first just figured she was a little late, but as the moon replaced the sun in the sky, he became very anxious.

          “Aw, is InuYasha waiting at the well for his girlfriend?” Shippo taunted InuYasha.

          “Shut up, Shippo!” InuYasha yelled, grabbing Shippo by the tail.

          “InuYasha’s being mean to me!” Shippo cried to Miroku and Sango.

          “Let him go, InuYasha,” Sango said, which InuYasha did.

          “Don’t worry about Kagome,” Miroku added. “She is known to be late from time to time. Maybe she fell asleep early. She will surely be here in the morning.”

          “I hope you’re right,” InuYasha responded. “It always makes me mad when she does this.”

          “Come on now, it’s not like she’s been away for three years,” Miroku said.

          The group then all went to sleep, with only InuYasha being restless.

       It was Saturday morning, the day of the Olympic archery trials, and Kagome headed to the train station. She boarded a bullet train headed to the site of the trials. Along the way she thought about how InuYasha was probably missing her… but she quickly put that out of her mind, because she knew she had to be totally focused today.

          Upon arriving at the site of the Olympic trials, she noticed how serious everyone seemed to be, particularly the other competitors. This was totally out-of-place for the energetic Kagome, but more than that, she had a hard time understanding how people could be worried about something like this. She knew what true serious situations were like, life-and-death ones. This at least served as a way of taking the pressure off her.

          She looked at a paper which explained the format of the competition. All of the archers would shoot 72 arrows. The top three archers in the final points standings would be invited to the Olympic team. It seemed like a pretty daunting task, but she was ready for it.

          The competition began, but it was not for quite a while until Kagome finally got her chance to shoot her first twelve arrows. Once it was her turn, she nervously stepped up to her spot and prepared to shoot. There was a light breeze, but not much to worry about. And then she fired the first arrow.

          Bullseye.

          The first twelve shots for Kagome went by so quickly she could hardly remember what happened. All she knew is that when she was finished, she looked at a scoreboard, which showed her score of 111, and she was thrilled.

          “Miss Higurashi, that’s a new Japanese women’s record!” an official told her.

          “Really?” the always bubbly Kagome responded. “Wow!”

          The competition continued on, and no other player came close to matching Kagome’s score, even on the men’s side. Kagome added several more ends in the 100s, before finishing with a final score of 659, another Japanese women’s record.

          As the final competitors went through their last ends, people were already coming up to Kagome, congratulating her.

          “Miss Higurashi, you’re going to the Olympics!” one told her.

          “You’re going to bring home the gold!” another added.

          Kagome was speechless. She simply smiled, not allowing any of her newfound fame to go to her head.

          When the competition finally came to a close, Kagome was announced as the winner of the women’s competition, and that she had earned one of three berths to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The announcer added that Kagome had won by such a significant margin that she could have forfeited her final six arrows and still come out on top. Everyone gathered at the trials cheered. Kagome gave an embarrassed smile; she was not used to such glory.

          It was now Saturday evening. InuYasha had waited, somewhat patiently, somewhat impatiently, for Kagome to return. He had not budged from the edge of the Bone-Eater’s Well for hours, yet he refused to jump in. He figured Kagome would be angry if he came looking for her early on, and besides, he was stubborn. He made his decision not to go after her, and he was sticking to it. But by this time, he was just about out of patience.

“Where is she!” an angry InuYasha yelled.

“Calm down, InuYasha,” Miroku replied. “I’m sure she’s not doing this on purpose.”

“Well, I’ve had it with waiting!” InuYasha shouted. “I’m going to find her, whether she likes it or not!”

He jumped into the Bone-Eater’s Well, feeling kind of embarrassed for going after Kagome, but determined to find out what was going on.

          “Wow, congratulations, sister!” Sota exclaimed, after hearing all about Kagome’s success at the Olympic trials.

          “We are so proud of you!” Kagome’s mother told her.

          “Just what I expected from my granddaughter!” Kagome’s grandfather said. “But you should hear what it took to make the Olympics back in my day…”

          As Kagome’s grandfather started in on another story, the others noticed a pounding on the back door. Kagome came rushing over to the door, wondering if it had something to do with the Olympics. When she saw InuYasha’s face, she was both embarrassed and angry at the same time. She had only one thing to say to him:

          “Sit!”