8/20/05

CH1title – Inuyasha and too many females

Jessica sneezed hard as pollen from a dozen cherry trees blew about her. The 5'10" blonde rubbed her eyes and looked about to locate her friends. With a flick she brushed her shoulder length hair behind her ears.

"Di! AJ! Wait up!" Jessica cried as she hurried to catch up to her friends. A tall 5'8" Dianna turned from the sign she had been reading and smiled.

"Hurry up!" AJ, or Alexandra Johnson, a shorter black girl pulled on her braids as she too tried to read the sign stuck to a wooden gate.

"I think we found it…stupid Japanese." AJ said pulling out a translation book.

The girls were in Japan on a mission. All three had saved up their money for years to take this trip half way around the world. AJ, Jessica, and Dianna were Inuyasha fans and had searched for sometime now to find the well in which Kagome had fallen.

"Really" Jessica rushed up past Dianna, Her Japanese being the best. She shoved her glasses further up her nose and stared at the lines.

"I think we have…done it!" Jessica pointed at a line "that's it! This is the temple!"

Dianna and AJ squeeled and then AJ stopped and took a step back.

"Wait. How do we get in? There's no handle." The other two stopped and looked around.

"Uh…Knock?" Dianna suggested.

"Or, we could ring the bell." Jessica said pointing at a long rope coming from the store the gate was set in. The other two looked at each other.

"Right!" They said together. All three grabbed for the bell pull and yanked. A deep thrumming tone sounded from somewhere inside.

Jessica looked at her friends and took a deep breath.

"This is it"

"Yup"

"yup" They waited for a few minuets and were about to ring the bell again when the gate eased open slowly. A young man with jet black hair looked out. He seemed about their age, in his late teens. He looked them up and down with slanted brown eyes before saying slowly,

"Can I help you?" Jessica smiled at him and stepped up.

"Yes…we wanted to see the temple and –"

"And the WELL!" AJ butted in. Dianna nodded. The boy sighed and pulled the gate open further.

"Fine. More Inuyasha fans…" He turned and walked off across the courtyard muttering to himself. Jessice looked at the others and stepped in behind him. Dianna and AJ were quick to follow.

"Should we shut the gate?" Dianna asked. Jessica nodded and Dianna pushed it closed. The boy had gone up to a building and was yelling something in Japanese inside. Suddenly an older woman burst out with a huge smile.

"Welcome! You wish see the well?" She said in a high, but soft voice.

"Yes…We want to see everything." Dianna said staring about in awe. Jessica sneezed again. She apologized and smiled.

"Allergies. I'm allergic to cherry blossom pollen." The woman nodded and smiled.

"Bad time for you then. Trees everywhere. Come, you need charms."

The girls looked at each other and followed the woman inside. The interior of the house was a gift shop filled with religious trinkets and slips of paper.

"You need jewels to see the temple, don't want bad spirits to follow you." The woman shuffled behind the counter and dug into a small box full of colored stones on strings. She pulled out three.

"I give you these free. Here, for you and you and you." She handed a small green stone on a brown string to Dianna, a larger red stone on a yellow string to AJ, and an odd sliver of purple stone on a blue string to Jessica.

"Thank you" They each said in turn. With swift movements they put their new jewels on. The old woman smiled again.

"Come. We see the well. You know Inuyasha?" She said pushing through another door to a larger courtyard. The three looked at each other and nodded.

"Yes. We love the show." AJ said to the woman's back, which had long gray hair falling down it. The woman chuckled.

"They come long ago and ask to use temple as setting. Mother say yes and everyone loves Inuyasha."

"Yes, we do." Jessica said as she ducked through a door into a dark room.

"Be careful, there is steps. Have good time, come see me after you done. OK?" The old woman slid out the door into the light, leaving the girls in the dark of the room. As their eyes adjusted Dianna gasped.

"There it is!" Down on the floor of the room was a square box-like opening. The well.