1

Kari was happy to be off that damned plane. It sucked that her mom couldn't afford anything other than coach. It was way to crowded, and it smelled funny. But at was the least her mom was sending her away. Her mom couldn't afford to feed three kids now, with her dead gone and all of the med bills left over. Since Kari was the oldest at 17, her mom had decided to dend her to live with her relatives in Japan. Her grandfather lived on the old family shrine with her aunt, and two cousins. Kari didn't have to go to school in Japan because she had graduated already, but since she was still a minor, she still had to have a legal gaurdian.(by the way, Kari looks like whatever you imagine her to be) Kari thought that it would be great to finally meet her family in Japan.

As all of the people were getting off of the plane, Kari heard someone calling out her name. She looked around and saw that it was her grandpa. There was a tall woman, a teenage girl, a teenage boy with silver hair and a baseball cap, and a younger boy with him. She recognized he aunt and cousins, but didn't know who the guy with silver hair was. She pushed her way through the crowd and made her way over to her grandpa.

"Kari, my girl, it is so good to see you again! I am so happy that you are staying with us now. And with you and Kagome both out of school, you can help out around the shrine!" Her gandpa gave her a really tight hug.

"I know grandpa, and it's good to see you again too! It's just to bad momma couldn't come to, she sends her love." Kari turned to the rest of her family and hugs them as well. When she turned to the guy, she looked at him closer and noticed that he had amber eyes, and he was wearing typical teen fasions. She also noticed that his hair was uber long! "so who might you be? Kagome's boyfreind?"

When she said that, he looked like he wanted to rip her into shreds. It was Kagome who answered her. "No, this is Inu Yasha. He wanted to meet you." She said quickly, moving in between Inu Yasha and Kari. "And, he is not moyfreind, I'm just helping him."

Kari takes an even closer look at Inu Yasha and notices that he is very handsome. She then looks over at Kagome and notices that there is a faint purple glow coming from under her shirt. "Kagome," she sais,"You do know that your shirt is glowing, right? Is it one of those glow necklaces?"

Kagome and Inu Yasha look surprised. Kagome pulls out a necklace with a jewel shard on it, and Kari instantly recognizes it, even though it's been broken.

She gasps, "The Shikon No Tama! How do you have it and why is it broken?! I thought that it had been burned with the body of the dead shrine maidon who protected it!"

Grandpa started to push them out of the airport. "This is not the place to discuss such matters!" he told them.

"For once, I agree with the old man." Inu Yasha replied, pulling Kagome and Sota behind him.

When everyone was settled at the family shrine, Kagome again said, "So, you can see the Shikon jewel. But, how is it that you know so much about it, Kari? Not even grandpa knew that it had been burned with a shrine maiden."

Kari relpied easily enough. "Dad knew everything about the Shikon No Tama. He tried to talk to grandpa about it, but grandpa would never listen to him. So he taught me all he knew about it. I always beleived the old stories because they seemed so real. And this right here is the proof that it was real."

"Well, do you know all of the story?" Kagome asked, looking over at Inu Yasha.

"No, parts of the legend were really sketchy, like its origons, and why it was burned in the first place." Kari replied.

"We have to tell her Inu Yasha. She could come with us and help us find more of the shards." Kagome said to Inu Yasha.

"Fine, but if she freaks out, you have to deal with her without any help from me." He said, leaving to room. "I'm going to have your mom make me some ramen." he called back through the doorway.

Kagome then told Kari all of the story, and Kari thought that it all made sense.

"So, you want me to help you find the rest of the shards of the Shikon jewel? Sounds easy enough to me." Kari told her, lyeing on the couch with a bag of chips.

Kari was lying on the couch with a bag of potato chips. "Sounds easy enough, helping you guys find the rest of the Shikon jewel shards. I know it will more than likely be dangerous, but I'm not a little girl anymore. Dad, before he died, made sure that I had been trained to be able to defend myself in most situations." She told Kagome, getting up and throwing the chip bag away.

InuYasha walked into the room and took a look at Kari and Kagome. "I didn't hear any laughter or screaming coming from here, so I guess that you believe all of it?" He asked Kari, sitting on the floor Indian style.

"Yeah, I believe it all. I decided that I'm going to help you find the rest of the shards, and since I don't have anything to hold me here, I can spend pretty much all of my time in the Feudal Era. Besides, two sets of eyes that can see the jewel shards are better than one, right?" She moved to sit back down on the couch. "So, the only thing I really need to worry about are other demons trying to get the jewel shards, right?"

"Pretty much. There are a few particularly nasty ones out there, like my brother, Sesshoumaru. But he wouldn't waste his time on a mortal like you." InuYasha said. Kari looked a little uncomfortable when he said that. "I'm gonna hit the sack now. We leave tomorrow at dawn, so you should get some sleep too. Kagome, your mom has already packed your bags, and Kari your stuff was already packed. G'night." He left the room once again.

Kari wondered where he slept, so she asked Kagome.

"He sleeps in Sota's room." She told Kari. Kagome led the way to her bedroom, since Kari had no idea where it was. The house was pretty good sized, with several stories. The grounds are what got Kari, though. She was always a sucker for a lot of land. She loved to run and play in forests, just like her father did. He used to take her out on pick-nicks before he got sick. With him and her mom split, their time together was all that more precious.

Kagome broke Kari out of her thoughts when she said, "you go on and take the bed, I'm really used to sleeping in a sleeping bag. After we got to the Feudal era, you will get used to it too." She walked over to her dresser and pulled out two nightgowns, and threw one at Kari.

"I need to go to the bathroom, so I will be back." Kari walked out of the room, then turned back around when she remembered that she didn't know where the bathroom was. "Umm. Kagome, where is the bathroom?"

"Silly, it's the fourth door on the left."

Kari walked to the fourth door on the left, and opened the door. She was relieved to see the bathroom. It was really pretty in shades of blue, green, and purple. She went about her business in the bathroom, doing what people do in bathrooms. All the while, she was thinking back to the days that her father was alive. He was really a good man, before he got sick. He used to take her to plays, parks, and all that other stuff that dad's do with their daughters. He would also come to all of her games and concerts. Her mother usually forgot that she had a daughter, spending all her time with her sons, leaving her to her own devices. Maybe that was why Kari loved her dad so much, because he actually took time out of his day to spend it with her.

As Kari left the bathroom, she was still going over these thoughts, when she ran into someone. She was falling when a strong pair of arms wrapped around her and kept her from falling. Kari looked up and saw that it was InuYasha, and he didn't look to happy about having to help her. She looked down to keep him from seeing her eyes, and saw that he was wearing a red mens kimono. It looked to be made out of some foreign material. He wasn't wearing his hat, either, and he had cute dog ears that she wanted to touch. She kept her hands to herself though, she didn't think he would appreciate it to much if she acted on her urges.

"I'm sorry, InuYasha, I should have been looking where I was going, it won't happen ever again." Kari said, keeping her head down and moving out of his arms.

"You're damn right that you should have been looking where you were going. If you are like this all the time, then maybe you shouldn't go back in time. I don't want to have to save you from all the damn situations that you could get yourself into that way."

"I said that I was sorry, it's not like I purposely go running around, looking for trouble. You could ease off my back about, I'm sorry that I was thinking of my dead father to deeply to remember that there are other, insensitive people in this house. I was also wondering how my family is. Did my little brothers get enough to eat tonight? Do you know what it's like to not have enough money to get food, and you give up your dinner so that someone else can eat? Of coarse not, you are a demon, and don't care about anyone. My mother sent me here because she couldn't afford to feed or clothe me anymore. She told me that I have to be and adult now and get the hell out of her life. She was never there for me when I was a child, and since my parents were split when I was born I had to live with my mom who despised me. My dad loved me, but I rarely got to see him, but when I did, it was heaven. Do you know what it's like to have something you love ripped out of your hands by death? Do you know what it's like to be surrounded, and yet be completely alone? If you did, then you wouldn't blame me for running into you, and besides, it's rare that I let myself dwell in these dark realms, so go and eat yourself, InuYasha. She yelled, turning to hide the tears running out of her eyes.

InuYasha didn't know what to think. He had never met anyone who had a past just as bad, if not worse, than his own. He at the very least had his mother, up until she died. This girl had no one, and her father only briefly. He could smell the salt of her tears, and noticed that her shoulders were shaking. He didn't understand why she turned from him, most girls tried to use their tears to manipulate men into doing their bidding.

"Hey, I know that you are crying, so why don't you turn around and let me talk to you." he said, trying to grab her shoulder.

"No, I don't want you to see me cry. Tears make people weak. Gives others openings in which to hurt you with. No one will ever hurt me like that again, no one." She cried, dodging his arm and running into Kagome's room.

InuYasha stared after her, wondering what she meant by all of that.

When Kari got to Kagome's room, she saw that Kagome was already asleep in her sleeping bag. Kari didn't want to wake her up, so she got into the bed and cried herself to sleep.