The sun peered over the horizon. A rooster crowed. The day's first sun rays shone through the window. Sota sat on his bed, wrestling with a gaming system. A girl opened the door quietly. "Sota, have you been up all night playing that game?" she eyed him suspiciously. "Sorry Kagome, it's so addicting! Ah yeah! Final level!" he jumped on the bed, then fell back down and sat up. "Oh, come on Kagome, you know it's awesome when something like that happens."

"It's not that. Sota, school starts in ten minutes, and you were up all night playing video games?"

"Kagome-

"Sota really. I'd expect better from you." She shook her head.

"Kagome?"

"Don't try to apologize, now you have to make up an excuse to your teacher explaining all this."

"Kagome?"

"What?"

"I think you're late again."

"I'm la- OH MY GOSH I'M LATE!" She sped past each bedroom until she arrived at the bathroom. She stuffed herself into her school clothes and brushed her teeth quickly. "Bye mom, bye grandpa!" she said quickly while grabbing her breakfast. "Late again? That Kagome." Grandpa nodded in agreement. Sota came out of the bedroom. "Sota, what are you still doing here? You're supposed to be in school now!" his mom hollered, and she shooed him off into his room while calling his teacher to excuse his lateness.

♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂

Kagome sped past cars and buses, and she finally arrived just in time for a test. "Thank you for joining us Miss, ah yes, Miss Kagome. Hmm… I see you have a fame of getting unusual sickness in short periods of time. Ah well, you won't have time to do that in my class." the teacher let out a snort. Everyone looked at each other, confused. "Excuse me," said one student, "but where is our homeroom teacher?"

"Ah, he's gone now. I'm your new teacher. See, Mr. whatshisname retired. So now you get me, Mr. Takasama."

Kagome looked and felt nervous. A new teacher? New troubles… She heard something tapping the window. She looked, and there was a creature that looked human, but wore a red kimono and had white hair, clutching a sword, with two dog ears on top of his head. To make it even more curious, the creature was hanging upside-down. "Ka-go-me…" he whispered. "Inuyasha! What are you doing here!?!" she asked, a bit frantic. "Miss Kagome, if you have to say something, please share it with the class." said Mr. Takasama. "Oh, no, I-I-I just needed to go to the bathroom, I'm n-nauseous, yeah." Kagome lied.

"Very well, you are excused. But report to the infirmary afterwards."

"Y-yes Mr. Takasama. Immediately."

She sped past all the desks and headed to the roof. "Inuyasha?" she called. She turned around and her heart gave a jolt. "Gah!" she yelped. Behind her was Inuyasha, and he had scared her unwillingly. "D-don't ever do that again!"

"Yeah, yeah. So, listen, you forgot your lunch." He handed Kagome a small brown bag.

"Again?" she sighs and takes it. "I'm just not good with this stuff… So what makes you come around here?"

"Well, for starters, I kinda, sorta, well not intentionally, but I might have-

"Mhm?" she nodded in impatience.

"I think I lost the Sacred Jewel." he winced.

"You WHAT?!?!? How on Earth can you lose such a thing? After all the trouble we went through, after the death of millions of people, you just LOSE it?"

"Hey, don't blame me! Kirara was the one using is as a ball!"

"It was YOUR responsibility! Kirara wasn't supposed to have it!"

"Well yeah but," he rubbed the back of his head, "we wondered what to do with it, and Miroku said we should probably destroy it, Sango wouldn't hear of it. So while they argued, well I, I just played around with Kirara for a few seconds… Then when she came back and the jewel was gone…"

"Inuyasha!"

"Excuse me! I'm not the reincarnation of a priestess!"

"You know I can't spend my life over there! I have an identity in this world too!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know test or whatever was more important than the destruction of your friend's lives along with innocent people!"

"Inuyasha, you know it isn't that way!"

"Then stop making it sound like it!"

"Ugh!" she turned away. Inuyasha gave her his back too, and they stood for what seemed hours, on the rooftop, silently hating one another's reaction to the situation. Kagome was immersed in thought, until she finally broke the silence. "Sit boy!" she said, and Inuyasha went crashing down, and hit the floor with a slam. "Y-you know I hate it when you do that." he said, wincing.

"Well, you know I hate it when you accuse me unfairly. Come on, I guess we'd better go and pack if you want your jewel back."

Inuyasha stood. She followed Kagome to the edge of the building while rubbing his head. Then Kagome sat on his back, piggy-back style, and he jumped from building to building, avoiding the traffic below, until they reached Kagome's house. She pushed the door open and went quickly to her room. "Kagome, you're home early. What happened?" her mom asked, but remained quiet as soon as she saw Inuyasha. "Hey, do you have any of those steak things?" he asked.

"O-oh, yes, yes of course. I'll fix one up right now."

Kagome grabbed Inuyasha's hand and pulled him towards the door. "No time mom," she said, while running off to the shrine, "Inuyasha lost the jewel, I gotta go! Bye!"

They reached the shrine and stepped into the well. Instantly, they felt they were upside-down and emerged from the well. Kagome stepped on fresh grass and the smell of cherry blossoms engulfed her, as she heard tiny feet approaching her. "Kagome! Inuyasha brought you back!" a little boy ran towards her, with fox feet and tail. "Shippo!" Kagome knelt and hugged him tightly. "Wow, it's been so long!"

"Hey Kagome, guess what! Inuyasha lost-

"The jewel, yeah, I heard." and she glared at Inuyasha while he climbed out of the well. He noticed and pouted while turning away. "Hey Shippo, where's Miroku? I need to talk to him."

"He's back at the river, but he's not too happy."

"Why not?" they began walking towards the river, Inuyasha followed them.

"Well, Sango wasn't too happy that Inuyasha blamed everything on Kirara. So she said she would go look for the jewel, but Miroku said to leave it alone, because at least now they didn't have to stay up at night to watch out for people who wanted to steal it. Sango said now it's worse because now anyone could have it, and they started arguing. Well, Sango just stormed off to look for the jewel and Miroku went to the river to 'fish'. There he is" Shippo ran towards a young man, dressed in robes, holding a staff. He was sitting facing the river, head bowed and eyes closed, humming softly. "Miroku! Kagome's here!" Miroku turned his head and saw Inuyasha and Kagome. "Ah, Kagome. I believe you've heard."

"That Inuyasha lost the jewel? Of course."

Inuyasha's face reddened. "Do ya have to say that to every living soul we find?" he hollered in Kagome's face. "Don't yell at me!" she hollered back

"Stop telling everyone I lost the jewel!"

"Well, it's true!"

"Yeah, but-

"That's enough." Miroku said. "At this moment, Sango is out looking for the jewel. She will be in grave danger once she finds it. Kagome, since you are the reincarnation of a priestess, do you think you can help us by sensing the Sacred Jewel, and to find Sango?"

"Well, of course Miroku!"

"Very well, we must be going then."

"Wait a sec, where's Kirara?"

"Sango… Took her to look for the jewel. She thinks that maybe she remembers where she and Inuyasha played with it last." he sighed. Kagome nodded. "I'm sorry for what happened."

"What? Oh, no it's nothing! Now, if you want, I'll give you a ride to the forest."

Kagome looked at his hands as he hunched to give him a ride. She shook her head. "Haven't changed one bit, huh Miroku? Its fine, I'm sure I can walk. I'm not injured or anything."

Miroku straightened. "Very well then, let's get going shall we?" They began walking, but noticed that Inuyasha wasn't following. "Inuyasha, we don't have time for this." Kagome said. Shippo ran towards Inuyasha and tugged at his leg. "Inuyasha, Sango needs your help." he said. Inuyasha looked at Shippo, then turned his back once more. "I'm sorry; she needs help from the guy that lost it in the first place?" Inuyasha said. Shippo climbed up Inuyasha's leg, onto his shoulders. "Come on Inuyasha!" he tugged at Inuyasha's ears, and Inuyasha punched him squarely in the face, knocking him off his shoulders. "Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted angrily, "Sit!" she said, as she faced away and Inuyasha went crashing down. He twitched angrily, and after a while he stood and agreed to go. "But stop accusing me of loosing it!" he said as a condition. "Well, don't blame me for saying the truth, and Kikyo-

Miroku shook his head rapidly. Inuyasha bowed his head, and began walking. He sped past Miroku, Shippo, and Kagome, and she felt guilty. "I'm sorry Inuyasha, I didn't mean to-

"Let's go, Sango needs our help." he said gloomily. They began walking, Inuyasha ahead, and Shippo, Miroku and Kagome behind, Kagome with her head bowed, rubbing her arm in shame and guilt, Miroku with Shippo on his shoulders, looking ahead to make sure they didn't lose focus…

LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!

♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂ ♀ ♂