"Kagome, hurry up, will ya?" Sakura complained impatiently from the bottom of the stairs. She brushed her ebony hair out of her face and watched as girl with bluish black hair came bolting down the stairs.

"Sorry!" she gasped out. Sakura shook her head dismissively.

"This is what happens, when you stay up all night watching TV..."
"Hey! I missed a lot while I was gone, Ok?!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Well, thanks to you, we're going to be late..." She shifted her backpack and walked out the door with Kagome a few feet behind her. After a long pause of silence, Kagome spoke up.

"Hey...are you going to be busy after school today?" she asked timidly. Sakura glanced at her over her shoulder, a bit weary.

"That depends...why?"

"Well...it's just that Inuyasha's coming to take me back to the Feudal Era and... -"

"Sorry. I can't. I have something to do today." Sakura said...almost too quickly.

"Oh come on. Inuyasha actually seems interested in meeting you..." Kagome said.

"Yeah, well I'm not. Some other time maybe." Sakura retorted harshly. Kagome caught on and dropped the topic. It always ended like that.

Sakura waved goodbye when they reached the school; they were both in different classes.

"Morning Sakura!" a bright perky girl said from her seat. She was pretty, with short curly blonde hair and shocking emerald eyes. Behind her sat a boy with brown hair and blue eyes. Sakura could see a wrapped parcel at his feet. She smirked and sat across from them.

"Morning, Airi, Houjou." She said courteously.

"Oh. Hi Sakura. Do you know if Kagome's feeling better today?" Houjou asked curiously.

"Yeah. She's here today. "Sakura replied, uninterested. He smiled slightly and glanced at the parcel she'd noticed. "I assume that's another gift for Kagome...?" she asked, faking curiosity.

"Yep. It's really helpful for arthritis pain..." He said.

Sakura shook her head, laughing quietly. Airi quickly changed the topic.

"So? Did you have that dream again?" she asked excitedly. Sakura thought about it for a moment.

"Yeah. It wasn't any different from before..." She said. Airi seemed disappointed.

"Aw...I was hoping you'd figured out what's going to happen to that girl..." She said quietly. Sakura shrugged and turned towards the board as the teacher came in. She was starting to regret telling Airi about that dream. There was no point in finishing it cause she already knew how it would end.

The next morning, Sakura walked to school alone, since Kagome had gone back down the well again. She still couldn't understand how Kagome could like it there. Then again the Higurashi family seemed to have a strange obsession with the mythical.

She wandered towards the park, suddenly feeling uninterested in going to school. A sharp pain ran through her as she walked into the wooded section of the park. The seals here always had that effect on her. As she ventured towards the shrine in the very back, she'd adapted to the pain. It was a very old shrine, probably from the 1400's, and was in bad disrepair.

'Strange...being here again...' she thought.

The next second she heard a crackling noise from behind her. She turned around to see a small shrine come into view; a sutra covered the door. In that same instant, it caught fire and the doors were flung open.

She leapt backwards to avoid the debris. A large demon stood in front of her. It vaguely reminded her of a Minotaur in Greek myths, with dark grey skin and beady red eyes.

"Boy, aren't you an ugly one." Sakura said in disdain. "I can see why they'd seal YOU away..."

The creature roared and struck the ground where she'd been standing with its fist. She landed behind the demon and slowly lured the creature back towards the shrine.

"Come on, ugly, just a little closer..." she coaxed mockingly. It tried to attack her again. She pushed off the ground hard and leapt over the demon's head by a good extra 3 feet.

She mumbled something under her breath, and made a slicing movement through the air with her fingers. Golden blades of energy struck the demon from behind, and blood erupted from the wounds. She aimed another attack as a carefully chosen tree, and the wooden pillar crashed down upon the demon.

She leapt over the tree, not caring to look at the corpse, and walked towards the shrine.

'Good. It wasn't damaged at all by that stupid oaf...' she thought, genuinely relieved.

"Your skills haven't deteriorated much over the last 11 years," a voice said from behind her; she turned around. A figure stood a short distance away, dressed in scaled-down black samurai armor. A white mask covered the person's face, and long bright red hair flowed down to the person's ankles.

"Don't you believe it's time for you to go 'home'?" the person asked. Sakura frowned.

"No. I have no connection to that world, not anymore."

"He is still alive. You are aware of that, aren't you?"

Sakura hesitated for a long moment, debating. Her hand went to the chain around her neck, and tightened around the item concealed beneath her shirt. "Yeah. I...I know that..." she said. Her tone surprised even her. It had been a long time since she had said anything with real emotion.

She glanced back at the stranger, but no one was there. Sighing, she walked out of the park and back towards Higurashi shrine. Her mind was in a daze as she wandered around Tokyo aimlessly for hours; it was well past suppertime when she arrived.

"Sakura, where have you been?!" Ms. Higurashi asked scoldingly. She dropped her bag near the front door and took off her shoes.

"Sorry. I got distracted," she mumbled as she walked into the kitchen. Sota and Kagome's grandfather were already eating. "Well...you two don't seem like you were too worried." she said pointedly.

"Sorry...we were hungry, sis." Sota complained. Sakura said nothing as she sat down at her usual spot and absently poked the food with her chopsticks.

"Are you not feeling well, Sakura? Would you rather have some soup instead?" Ms. Higurashi asked.

"No thanks, Mom. I'm just not very hungry." Sakura mumbled.

"Do my ears deceive me?! Sakura, not hungry? This has never occurred before! What's bothering you?" Kagome's grandfather asked.

"Nothing, Gramps." Sakura replied, slightly annoyed.

"Grandpa's right. Normally you eat enough for an army." Sota added.

"Are you trying' to call me a pig?! I'm telling' you, nothing's wrong! It's..." she paused. "It's just that I've been doing some thinking, and...I've decided to go home for a bit."

"Home? You mean down the well?" Gramps asked incredulously.

"That's exactly what I mean." Sakura replied tonelessly.

Sota looked surprised too. "But sis...you said you hated it there!"

"I do...but, there's something I need to look into." she said quietly. 'I always thought that he was alive...but to have confirmation...' she thought. 'I need to find out for sure...if he's dead or not...' Suddenly, she saw Ms. Higurashi leave the room. She got to her feet and followed her upstairs, and then into her room.

"Mom..." Sakura started to say.

"I always knew that you'd return to your old home one day. I just didn't think it'd be so soon..."

"It's been 11 years, mom..."

Ms. Higurashi laughed quietly. "And it's getting harder for you to pose as a 15 year old..." Sakura was laughing too. Ms. Higurashi turned and handed Sakura a folded piece of cloth. "You were so adorable when you first arrived here, dressed in your cherry blossom kimono. So I had another made for when this day came. It suits you better than our clothes do."

Sakura smiled, and went into her room to change. Almost reverently she held up the kimono. It was a pale pink, with sakura petals and golden spirals all over the cloth. It didn't seem fit for travel.

Nevertheless, she put on a plain white kimono first, and then Ms. Higurashi's.

After throwing a few necessary supplies into her now travel backpack, she headed back downstairs. She said goodbye to each Higurashi in turn-hugging Gramps, ruffling Sota's hair, and kissing her adoptive mother-and then ran out of the house, not daring to look back, and risk changing her mind.

She pulled open the shrine doors and leapt into the well, and allowed that world -and the identity she'd faked in it- to vanish behind her.

End Chapter 1