What if certain things were considerably different right after the demise of Queen Beryl and right after the Dark Kingdom's undesired banishment to their home Dimension anywhere else in the Universe? And what if there were certain other people who also arose to fight evil, besides those who had fought evil before? This fan fictional work will surely explore certain non-canonical possibilities that then might have somehow actually come to pass right after the defeat of the Dark Kingdom at the end of Sailor Moon Classic. It definitely will involve characters from at least three anime/manga series, at least, if not more. And possibly certain other characters from various non-anime/non-manga series or books, as well. You all will have to guess the potential pairings as various characters appear in the story, of course.

I will, however, say that three of the Japanese-originated series that most certainly will be fused together in this story, and possibly certain other sufficiently-related ones, will be Sailor Moon, Love Hina, and Inuyasha. Other than that, you all will just have to wait and see just what other crossovers will be part of this story and/or certain sufficiently-related ones. For the purposes of this particular story, at least, if not others as well, I am setting the starting date of this story in early June 1991, even for the various non-Sailor Moon-related characters. And for those purposes, at least, the Sailor Senshi will have knowingly been active as such, at least as of September 1990, at the very earliest.

There certainly will be no Outer Senshi, except for maybe Sailor Pluto, and also no Doom Tree Arc. At least not in this particular story here, anyway. But it still will take place mainly in a Sailor Moon-type setting, wherever and whenever possible, just the same. In terms of Love Hina, consider this to start right after Episode 4 of its anime version, perhaps. And in terms of Inuyasha, consider this story to start right after Kagome Higurashi shatters the Shikon no Tama with her spirit-infused arrow in Episode 2 (?) of its anime version, perhaps. Other crossed-over/fused series will pick up as needed from certain major points in their sufficiently-related timelines, once characters from them appear in this story or sufficiently-related ones. There most certainly will be at least some differences in the more familiar canon timelines and/or in certain canon characters for each crossed-over/fused series. But I do not want to share them all here just yet, for all the obvious reasons, people.

I most certainly will be beginning this particular story right after the Character List below, for that matter, though. And before I forget, all non-original characters are the property of their respective owners, et cetera. I most certainly will make absolutely no profit whatsoever here and now. At least not in terms of profiting in a financial aspect, if not in any other way whatsoever as well, from this fan fiction, so it would be rather pointless indeed to sue me here, of course.

Currently-Present Character List (Not Necessarily in Order of First Appearance):

Sailor Moon:

Naru Osaka

Usagi Tsukino

Ami Mizuno

Love Hina:

Keitaro Urashima

Naru Narusegawa

Shinobu Maehara

Mitsune Konno

Motoko Aoyama

Kaolla Su

Aunt Haruka

Inuyasha:

Ginkuro Akai (Inuyasha, fyi)

Kagome Higurashi

Sota Higurashi

Kaede

Kikyo

Kagome's Mama

Kagome's Grandpa

Chapter One: Altered Destinies?

0630 Hours

June 10, 1991

Keitaro's Room

Keitaro Urashima was dressing for the day ahead when he accidentally knocked some letters from certain friends of his Aunt off a bedside table. He had only received them the day before at the usual mail-gathering time for him, but had forgotten them just before going to bed the night before. No thanks to a rather unexpected triple-team-up strike by Kaolla Su, Motoko Aoyama, and Naru Narusegawa, as he was then exiting the women's hot springs area for the night after having just done some rather major clean-up work in it by about 10:30 pm.

Flashback:

They all had come across him then with him still carrying a mop and bucket in his hands. Su had secretly snuck a somewhat new bar of soap directly into his path, seconds after they saw each other there without anyone else knowing this early enough to stop Su's prank quite well enough. Of course, Keitaro stepped on the bar of soap and went skidding forward on it. Skidding forward right into Naru and Motoko, who were each carrying some food and drink over to a bench for Su, themselves, Shinobu Maehara, and Mitsune Konno, in fact, so that they could all just look at the stars for at least a little while before bed.

"Hey, Baka! What did you do that for?" yelled Naru, once she and Motoko both realized that several cups of assorted juices had just drenched themselves and Su quite considerably, and that several pastries of assorted types were also sticking somewhat securely to certain heads and/or articles of clothing they were then wearing or carrying in their hands.

"Not my fault, Narusegawa-san! Please don't get after me now!"

"Prepare to die, Urashima-san! You did this on purpose! Zitoshi Kugapu Zanzashu, Strike!" exclaimed Motoko, of course. She didn't yet know what it meant, but those words still came to her lips here, just the same.

"Any last requests, before we send you to oblivion?" asked Naru, once Keitaro was frozen in place for some yet-unknown reason here for a time.

"Don't send me too far away, for if you do, you'll have to do all the work here yourselves until I return, you know!"

"Send him into orbit, Naru! I really want to see just how far he can fly, and just how fast he can!" said Su, as she suddenly smacked a new yet-untested device of some yet-unknown sort on his back just where nobody else then present could see it quite well enough.

Naru thought about it, and then said, as Mitsune and Shinobu were just entering the hot springs area, "Stand clear, girls! It's time to send this horned toad flying!" Motoko was readying another more intensive attack against Keitaro, and Su was now fiddling with a strange device she'd just retrieved from goodness-knows-where in order to control still another strange device of some sort.

"Naru-senpai, must you really do this now?" asked Shinobu, rather timidly, of course.

"I have to protect you all, it now seems to me, from this horny man's rather slimy habits. Even you, Shinobu-chan."

"But it's not fair!" cried Shinobu, for she really liked Keitaro Urashima, and generally had ever since first meeting him not too long before.

"I do what I must, Shinobu-chan, for the good of everyone here, I think," said Naru, as she, Motoko, and Su then simultaneously launched Keitaro into the air, as was quite often their wont in their lives. Especially for Naru and Motoko, in fact. Keitaro went flying around the Earth so that he orbited it three times. And as soon as he was high enough in the air, the device that Su had just smacked onto his back suddenly became quite active and enveloped him in a mostly invisible environmental suit of some yet-unknown sort. Keitaro eventually sailed through a young girl's then-open window, landing on her bedroom floor mostly unconscious when he did so, in the Azabu Juuban area of Tokyo, Japan. The girl that the mostly-darkened room actually belonged to was nowhere to be seen when he landed there, for that matter.

Eventually, Keitaro stirred, but only after said girl had found him lying on her bedroom floor still somewhat unconscious, and had discovered the strange device on his back, well enough. Said girl checked him out briefly, even as she tried to turn on most of the lights in her bedroom just as her mother's voice also began heading her direction. She soon realized that he wasn't evidently from anywhere she knew of at all in Azabu Juuban once she somehow discovered his flopped-open wallet well enough. And a business card in it said, as best as she could then tell here, "Keitaro Urashima, Hinata Dorm Manager."

"Where did you go, my little Princess? Mama's looking for you now! She has a present for you straight from Paris, in fact." The girl panicked, and began trying to think of a way to deal with the fact that a strange young man was now lying rather unconscious in her mostly-darkened bedroom for some yet-unknown reason here.

"I'll get it later, Mother. I don't feel particularly well at the moment," said the girl in question. "I went to the arcade and ate something that's not agreeing with me too much right now. Please let me be for the rest of the night, Mother!"

"Are you sure, Precious?" asked her still-unseen and somewhat skeptical mother here.

"Yes, Mother, I am. I'll see you tomorrow morning, then."

"Very well, then, Princess, I will."

Her mother's voice soon turned away from where it had been heading, and instead to another room of the residence where the girl and her family then lived with each other in Tokyo's area of Azabu Juuban. When the girl in question realized that she'd not be disturbed by her parents and others without her knowledge or consent for the rest of the night, she then took another look at the Hinata Dorm's manager for at least a little while. Or at least as best as she could then do, for the majority of the lights in her bedroom were still not functioning properly for some yet-unknown reason.

Keitaro had landed on two bounces on the girl's floor, losing his glasses on the first bounce near her still-open window. His wallet and a few other items fell out of his pockets on the second bounce, about five or so seconds before he smacked down on the girl's bedroom floor quite hard indeed, from what she could then gather here well enough.

The girl in question was now wearing a cream-colored sleeveless blouse over a pair of navy blue slacks and a pair of black closed-toe sandals. She also had a green and gold-trimmed bow in her short and wavy reddish-brown hair. A look of considerable concern was on her face as she took his current appearance into view here in her eighty-percent darkened bedroom.

At the moment, Keitaro was wearing a light orange jacket over a tan short-sleeved shirt, a pair of gray work shorts, and a pair of flip-flops like many people might often wear in showers. His glasses were resting somewhat askew near her window, several feet away. And assorted items of his were strewn out between where his glasses were and where he was in her room. The girl soon briefly left her room, and went to a nearby restroom to wet a few washcloths in the hopes that the cool water on those washcloths would somehow help to bring him around here well enough.

Two minutes, at most, later, the girl began wiping off his face and neck with those cloths or placing them on his forehead, as she saw fit. She also wondered, "How did you get here, and where is Hinata Dorm?"

Yet, Keitaro still didn't regain full consciousness here, for the quite sudden combination strike against him by Naru Narusegawa, Motoko Aoyama, and Kaolla Su had been quite powerful indeed in its force here. Not just because of any of the girls alone, but also because of their triple-team attack on him some time before. When the girl realized this well enough, she realized that he had to be helped by someone else entirely. So she decided to call one of her dearest friends up, even though it was now rapidly approaching 11 at night.

She soon moved to her phone, and called her rather close friend Usagi Tsukino. A few minutes later, she helped Usagi and another girl by the name of Ami Mizuno through her window, once they had secretly made their ways to it through non-conventional means of some sort. Usagi said, "We're here, Naru-chan. I hope you didn't just call me out of my bed for no good reason just a little while ago."

"No, I most certainly did not. I have someone in my room who needs more help than I can currently give them, it seems. And they're mostly unconscious as well, for that matter, Usagi-chan."

"Why are the lights mostly out in your room, Osaka-san?"

"I don't know for sure, but I suspect it may have something to do with the strange device that seems to be on his back now, Mizuno-san, for some yet-unknown reason."

"Where is this person you're speaking of, then, Naru-chan?"

Naru Osaka then guided Usagi and Ami right to where Keitaro was still lying on her floor here mostly unconscious. As soon as they were close enough to him here, the three girls began to all check him out much more, of course. Especially Ami, once she barely heard him say, "Did you really have to send me so far, Aoyama, Narusegawa, and Su?"

"Who are Aoyama, Narusegawa, and Su, Osaka-san?"

"I have no idea just yet, Mizuno-san. Must be some people he's acquainted with, as far as I can tell here well enough." Ami's hands soon found the rather strange device on Keitaro's back, and tried to get it off his back here well enough, but they were still somewhat unable to do that now.

"I wonder who put this on his back, Osaka-san."

Naru reached over to where the device was, while also suddenly grabbing one hand of both Usagi and Ami here, on Keitaro's back. As the three of them unexpectedly all touched it at the same time, a few seconds later, Naru suddenly said, in a yet-unknown tongue of some sort, "Keitaro, Ikakuta Sanaku Choshiru."

Keitaro woke up quite fully no more than ten seconds later, and asked, when he eventually recognized he wasn't where he then expected to be quite well enough, "Where am I, and who are you?" As he spoke, all the lights in Naru's room suddenly flashed on quite brightly indeed.

Naru said, as she and Ami helped Keitaro sit up here well enough, "Urashima-san, you are now in my bedroom, for some yet-unknown reason. I am Naru Osaka, and these are classmates of mine, Usagi Tsukino and Ami Mizuno." Ami soon saw where Keitaro's glasses had landed, and had Usagi start picking up all of the things that had fallen out of his pockets when he'd bounced through Naru's window to her bedroom floor. Even as she herself then picked up his glasses and quietly returned them to him as needed here well enough.

"Who's who, Osaka-san?" asked Keitaro, as he put his glasses back on his face where needed, of course.

"Tsukino-san is the blonde girl with long pigtails and twin buns for her hairstyle. Mizuno-san is the one with short bluish-black hair here."

"Have we ever met before, Mizuno-san? You look at least a little bit like one of my friends by the name of Shinobu Maehara, by the way."

"No, I don't think so, Urashima-san. At least I don't recall ever meeting you before, anyway. Perhaps you can tell us how you got here, and what this device on your back is."

Keitaro reached back and felt where it was, with Ami's help, and said, "It's most likely one of Su's crazy inventions here. Oh, my! Knowing her, she probably put a tracker on it of some sort. If she did, then a bunch of people are likely to show up here fairly soon, if I'm not too mistaken here."

"And if they find you here, then what?" asked Usagi, not yet understanding well enough here, for the obvious reasons.

"I'll be in even more trouble with them, Tsukino-san."

"Why is that, if I might ask, Urashima-san?"

"Because, young ladies, I am the manager of an all-girls' dormitory, thanks to my Grandma Hina. If certain people find me here, somehow, they'll get after me again, no doubt."

"What?" all three girls suddenly exclaimed, while also trying to keep their voices down enough so that Naru's parents and/or siblings wouldn't hear them conversing with Keitaro here, of course.

"That's right. Two of them really don't like the fact that I'm the manager there, but Grandma Hina turned the dormitory over to me just before she went off on a round-the-world trip. And they quite often get after me every chance they get, especially when I trip over certain things, or land on top of them for some accidental reason, for instance, Osaka-tachi."

"How many girls are at this dormitory with you now, Urashima-san?"

"Well, let's see here, Tsukino-san. Kaolla Su is one of those girls. Naru Narusegawa is a second one. Motoko Aoyama is a third one. Mitsune Konno, a fourth one. And Shinobu Maehara, a fifth one. Aunt Haruka told me that there may eventually be still another, after she related a dream that she had last night to me this morning."

"I see. And why do two of them not want you there?" asked Ami.

"I'm a male, simply put. And just because of that fact, they really don't want me to often be around the Dormitory if I don't absolutely have to be. But I'm still going to be their Dorm's manager, whether they might like it or not, Mizuno-san."

Just then, a mixture of assorted voices began reaching his ears here somehow quite well enough. "Oh, great! I've got to get out of here before they find me with you three well enough."

"And just how do you plan on doing that, Urashima-san?" asked Naru.

"I really don't know, Osaka-san. But if I still have this device on, they'll find me for sure, no matter where I'm at."

Naru said, all of a sudden, as she looked at the strange device for a few moments, "Let me try something, if I may, Urashima-san."

"What do I have to lose, Osaka-san? Do what you think you must, then."

"Very well, then, let's see if we can get this off. Usagi, place your hand near the left edge of it as we're facing it. Mizuno-san, you should touch the right side of it. And I'll take the middle."

The three girls helped him stand, so that they could do as Naru thought they should with him here and now. With that done, Naru led them in touching that device of some yet-unknown sort, and the three girls suddenly found themselves saying with almost one voice, "Matashu Notaruki Satosaimu, Hinata Yobumo." The device broke apart, and fell into several pieces near his feet. Ami picked it up, and began examining it, piece by piece.

"They just lost the signal to that device, Mizuno-san," said Keitaro, as soon as Ami looked at him yet again in Naru's bedroom.

"How do you know?"

"She's actually smacked several similar enough devices to this one on my back before. And she always loses contact whenever they're broken quite well enough somehow. They'll all be hunting for me now, though, seeing as they've all tracked me at least to Azabu Juuban here, it seems. I really do need to get to the nearest train station or something, I think, in order to get back to the Dorm before they all find me here well enough. I've got a long way to go, and I don't want you three involved any more than you have to be." He suddenly showed the three of them five pictures of different Hinata Dorm residents, starting with one of Naru. "Beware of Naru and Motoko. They are quite a handful to deal with, more often than not, when they're angry with me for some reason. Whether justified or not, they often are. Mitsune spends much of her time gambling or drinking booze, Su is almost always building something, and Shinobu is quite the cook."

"Well, how about you go out the window that you rather unexpectedly entered my room through, then, Urashima-san?" asked Naru.

"I suppose I could, but that still doesn't get me to the train station, you know, Osaka-san."

"I can't leave, but perhaps my classmates could bring you there, just the same, Urashima-san."

Keitaro thought about this rather briefly here, before finally saying, "I suppose you're right, Osaka-san. Let's go, then, Tsukino-tachi."

About two minutes later, then, Keitaro, Usagi, and Ami exited Naru's bedroom through the same window he'd earlier come through rather unintentionally indeed. Naru then locked it quite securely behind them all, once they were all out of it well enough. That done, she soon donned a pair of orange and light green pajamas and climbed into bed here.

Ten minutes later, at most, Keitaro was already on the way back to the Hinata Dorm. An hour after that, at most, he was again in his room, just minutes ahead of the tenants' fruitless return to the Dorm's grounds here, for that matter. They all soon headed to their respective rooms and went right to sleep in their beds, of course.

End of Flashback:

Keitaro soon saw those letters on the floor near his bed, after buttoning the last button on a clean white dress shirt he'd just donned. He picked them up, seconds later, and began reading his mail for a while, even as he eventually made his way to the Dorm's dining room area for breakfast. This continued for a little while, at least, before Su suddenly jumped on his back in a hallway near that area of the Dorm. Su was currently invisible as she jumped on his back, but the evidence of her presence still registered in Keitaro's brain when he suddenly caught a whiff of bananas in the air.

Su then held her hands over his eyes, and he tried to shake her off him, but was unable to do so well enough before he crashed rather unintentionally into Naru as she was also making her way to the dining room area for breakfast. Naru didn't see Su, of course. So she said, as Keitaro continued to try to get Su off him well enough, with somewhat-flailing arms and hands, which also got themselves caught on Naru's belt for an orange skirt she was then wearing, "Keitaro, you're asking for it again, it seems."

"What, Narusegawa? I'm not doing anything except trying to get Su off my back now and go to get myself some breakfast before I tell you all something rather important indeed."

"Likely story. Where is Su, really?"

"On my back, I say. She's got her hands over my eyes. She's invisible. But not undetectable. Can't you smell any bananas in the air right now?"

"Keitaro," said Naru, in a rather skeptical, and somewhat threatening tone, "you had better not be trying to pull any tricks on me here, or else you'd best prepare yourself for another flight."

"Just smell the air, Narusegawa. Don't you smell anything out of place now?"

Naru sniffed the air for a few seconds, and said, "Barely. I smell smoke from one of Su's inventions, but that's normal for her. Bananas, I smell a bit of them, but not fresh ones, for once. She often smells like bananas, though. What do bananas have to do with anything here?"

"Don't hit me, and you'll find out. Follow the smell, and see if you can find her well enough. If you find her well enough, there should be a device of some sort hanging on her waist just below the hem of her uniform blouse, at about belt-level."

"What kind of device?"

"A ringed planet-like device on a chain around her waist. Look for a small axis on the device and push in both ends of that axis as far as you can. That should allow you to see her well enough then, I think. And that should keep her sufficiently near us to prevent an escape by her here."

"For your sake, at least, I hope that you're not trying to trick me, Keitaro," said Naru.

"I'm not. Just do it soon, before my hands do something that they don't actually want to do, please, Naru."

Naru followed the smell, sniffing all around Keitaro, even around his legs, just as Motoko and Mitsune walked into the area of where Naru, Keitaro, and Su now were. Both Motoko and Mitsune were rather surprised to see her sniffing all around Keitaro, and couldn't believe what they were apparently seeing here very well, if at all.

As Keitaro submitted to Naru's sniffing around himself here, even around his legs, he silently prayed that if Motoko was anywhere nearby, she wouldn't get the wrong idea and hit him again for no good reason. Knowing that was rather unlikely, at best, he still hoped that she wouldn't do so, just the same, of course.

Motoko and Mitsune watched Naru around Keitaro here, and wondered, "What in the blazes is that manager of ours doing now, or making Naru do now?" Naru was now quite near certain parts of Keitaro, and running her hands up his legs, in hopes of finding just where the smell of not-fresh bananas was then coming from here.

Eventually, Mitsune could hold in her amusement here no longer, and said, "Are you smelling something delicious, Naru-chan?"

Naru shot up immediately from where her head was then near Keitaro's waist, quite naturally enough blushing very deep red as she did so, and an elbow rather unexpectedly shot into Keitaro's groin area on his right side. Quite naturally enough, Keitaro let out one rather loud "YOWWWWCH," when her now-flailing left elbow hit him there not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, but five times, rather unconsciously indeed. It was at this particular point in time when Shinobu entered, about to let everyone know that breakfast was now ready for consumption by them all. And all the girls who were then present almost immediately saw Keitaro reaching for certain personal areas of his, obviously in rather great pain. Even the still-invisible Su, by the way.

Naru was stunned, to say the least, but Shinobu was even more so, when they saw Keitaro trying to avoid even more still-unintentional hits from Naru's now-flailing elbows and other parts of hers on various parts of his own body. "This just isn't fair! Why must I have to take hits like this, even if it's not intentional on anyone else's part here?" As he said those things, Shinobu quite suddenly broke into tears, quite naturally enough, as was quite often her wont, whenever Keitaro was hit by certain other residents of the Dorm. She only barely avoided fainting here, but still let her tears fall here, just the same, as she crumpled to the floor near the dining room area door.

Naru moved closer to him, yet again. And he, quite naturally indeed, then tried to shrink back and somehow manage to keep from actually getting hit any more at all by her here. Even if it wasn't currently intentional on Naru's part here. "Mitsune, what did you just do that for?" asked Naru. But eventually, he ended up against a nearby interior wall of the Dorm, with nowhere else to go at the current time quite well enough.

"You looked like you were rather enjoying sniffing around Keitaro here. What were you just looking for, if I might ask, Naru-chan?"

"Su, and some not-fresh bananas, it seems."

"Oh, I see. What's she have to do with anything?"

"Keitaro said she's on his back and invisible, but not undetectable," said Naru, as she suddenly reached behind Keitaro as he was currently cowering against the applicable wall in the Dorm. Her hand unexpectedly found a device such as Keitaro had just described, just where he'd said it might be, and she then did as he'd directed her to do once she'd found it. Su became almost immediately visible to everyone else in the area, and tried to get away from everyone when she did so. Naru said, "Seems you're right for once here, Keitaro. You won't go flying this time, obviously enough."

Shinobu breathed a sigh of great relief, and then said something that surprised everyone else, but especially Su, here. "Su, you are so not going to get that banana creme pie you wanted me to make for at least a week, if not even longer, now. Don't bother asking me to make you anything else sufficiently special either for at least that long. Keitaro doesn't deserve your mistreatment of him, for that matter."

Shinobu then set down her cooking spoon that was now in her hand on top of a pitcher of grape juice, and proceeded to walk over to Su here. She then snagged Su's nearest arm rather roughly, and slung her over her shoulder. That done, Shinobu rather unexpectedly went out to the hot springs area, and carried Su over to the side of it to at least some degree. Then she tossed Su up in the air, before swinging her right leg first back briefly, and waiting for Su to come down far enough for her to kick Su's behind right into the air several times, and then into the hot springs area.

As everyone else watched, in rather stunned silence, of course, Shinobu waited briefly for Su to come down again. When Su did so at least well enough here, Shinobu then kicked her into the air eight times straight just as high as she could with each of those kicks. After the eighth such kick, Su came down just one more time, whereupon Shinobu kicked her one last time, sending her straight into the women's bath area without another word or look in her direction at the present time. With that done, Shinobu and the others besides Su went inside to have their breakfasts with each other. Su remained in the women's bath fully dressed for several long minutes, and quite naturally enough, quite stunned by Shinobu's rather uncharacteristic pounding of her here, before finally returning briefly to her own room to change into a dry school uniform set of hers.

By the time Su eventually returned to the Dorm's dining room area, then, everyone else was no longer anywhere at all on the Dorm's grounds. And there was nothing left for food or drink from the items that Shinobu had just made for everyone's breakfast here this morning, as well. Not only that, but Shinobu had even, somehow, actually put Su-proof locks on the refrigerator and on the nearby cabinets and stove, due to the fact that she was now quite steamed at Su here, of course. So Su soon realized that her mistreatment of Keitaro would cause her to not have anything to eat or drink at least until she found other friends of hers anywhere else in the local area of the Dorm, most likely. It was a very unhappy Su who then left the Dorm's grounds to do whatever might actually cross her mind to do for the rest of the daylight hours on June 10, 1991.

0900 Hours

June 10, 1991

Higurashi Family Living Room

Kagome Higurashi was sitting on a couch reading a book when her mother came in and asked her, "What are your plans for the day, if I might ask, Kagome?" [AN: Of course you all know what she normally looks like, most likely, so I won't describe her appearance here and now.]

"I was thinking of going shopping at one of the local malls for a while with a few of my friends, if I might. Supposing a certain young man doesn't object too much, of course." Kagome smiled briefly at her mother, while she also set her book on her right knee somewhat temporarily.

"Are you talking about Ginkuro, Kagome?" asked a woman who appeared to be in her forties, more or less, at the current time. [AN: You know what she normally looks like too, I'm sure.]

"Yeah, I am. He seems to want me to help him hunt for certain jewels for his girlfriend Kikyo Musashi, believe it or not. We both lost them when I accidentally hit them as I was then practicing some archery with a bow and several arrows a while back. And now he says that I have to help him find those jewels that we lost when I hit them with an arrow at archery practice some time ago, because of that simple fact." Actually, they were shards of the Shikon no Tama, but Kagome's mother didn't really need to know that here yet, if ever.

"Because you both lost them, I take it."

"Yes, and they're very valuable jewels that belong to his girlfriend's family, it seems."

"Oh, my. Then I suppose you must do what you can to find those jewels you just told me of here, of course, Kagome."

"Yes, I know, but they're most likely going to be quite hard to find, I think, if at all. Many will perhaps be searching for them as well, considering just how valuable they might be, I think."

"I see. Well, I hope you find them all soon, so that you can do whatever you want with your life in the future, of course. He's not going to go away from it until all the jewels are found, if I get your drift well enough?"

"No, I don't think so. And I don't particularly like his girlfriend, in truth. But because I did what I did, even though it was a total accident, it now seems that I actually have to try to help him find those jewels wherever and whenever they can possibly be found at all, Mama."

"Well, in that case, please be as careful as you can, of course, Kagome."

"Obviously, Mother. Obviously, of course. Well, I suppose I had best take this book back to my room and get out of here before Red Boy shows up here quite well enough." Red Boy was Kagome's nickname for Ginkuro, due to the fact that he was almost never seen without a red jacket or vest and/or hakama-style trousers on his person, even during situations which might normally call for much more formal attire in his life. Ginkuro was a young man apparently about 18 or so years old, and who was going to be a high school senior the following September. They had not yet attended school with each other, but had only recently met each other in a city park not very far from where Kagome now lived with her family in Tokyo, Japan.

Ginkuro Akai was the second son of his parents, with an older brother that Kagome didn't yet know about. For she didn't yet know all that much about him, due to the simple fact that she'd only just met him in her life, under rather unexpected circumstances indeed. There was still much that she didn't yet know of him, and Ginkuro wanted to keep it that way for as long as he could, in fact.

Ginkuro had mostly black waist-length hair with at least a few strands of silver in it. He normally wore it in a cape-like style, completely unbound, whenever he could, even if others didn't really want him to do just that. Many teachers he'd known in his life had tried to get him to cut his hair, or at least asked him to put it up somehow, but he was quite a rebel to such ideas. He ultimately said, once upon a time, after one such teacher had nagged him about his hair too much at a certain time, "Nobody except my mother or my girlfriend touches my hair if I don't want them to. Got it?" As if to further emphasize that particular statement of his, he rather suddenly whipped out several weapons of assorted sizes, shapes, and appearances, much to the surprise of that very same teacher and many others then near them, and brandished them all quite quickly and quite well indeed. He had no further hair-related complaints from any teacher in any number of schools that he'd been in ever since the aforementioned incident, for that matter, of course.

Nobody outside his extended family or his girlfriend's extended family had messed needlessly with him since that time. At least not until he actually met Kagome, anyway. They were almost instantly at loggerheads with each other, once they'd first met each other in that city park, in fact.

Two days later, in another time and place, then, Kagome had shattered the Shikon no Tama after hitting it with an arrow as a rather strange crow began flying away from her and others with that very same jewel. The Shikon no Tama had then shattered into numerous shards almost immediately after the arrow hit it well enough. Needless to say, Ginkuro was none too pleased, of course. And said so, in very short order, in fact.

The following day, just before they had returned to modern-day Tokyo, a somewhat older woman, in the garb of a Shinto priestess who went by the name of Kaede, rather unexpectedly indeed gave Kagome a beaded necklace of some sort. She soon told Kagome to place it as best as she could around Ginkuro's neck. And whenever he got rather mad at her, to say a certain word in order to activate the various beads on that yet-unfamiliar necklace. Kagome didn't understand just yet what she'd meant, but still considered what Kaede had just said to her then. At least in terms of Ginkuro and his new necklace, even as she had placed it around Ginkuro's neck before he could stop her well enough here, anyway.

It was while they were both in a time portal of some sort with each other here and heading back to modern-day Tokyo that Ginkuro had eventually started to complain much more than Kagome could currently stand, and she said the first word that she could then think of well enough. [AN: You all know the particular word in question here, people, I'm quite sure, by now.] Much to their mutual great surprise, then, he had instantly found himself falling to the ground, or what might pass for the ground, in the time portal that they were now in, of course.

It had taken another three repetitions of that word to make Ginkuro stop arguing with her well enough and shut him up sufficiently for the rest of their trip back to modern-day Tokyo. Ginkuro had soon returned to his family's home in the area. And he had stayed there for the rest of the current day, at least, if not even longer than that here.

It had now been almost two weeks since that time, and Kagome somehow knew Ginkuro was just looking for another chance to drag her along with him on the search for more jewel fragments. This was because she was, at least to the best of his current knowledge, the only person he knew who might possibly be able to detect their presences well enough without help from anyone else at all. He didn't really know just how that was the case for her, but he still somehow knew it. As if it was a rather strange hunch, perhaps, of his.

They both suspected very strongly indeed now that they periodically would encounter each other in their respective lives, whether or not they really would want to do so in them. Though they both didn't really know just where and when such encounters might then happen for them just yet, of course. While she often visited with her friends or shopped in various places, at various times, he often bided his time in what she might normally call "Ivory Towers" in her life, but which were actually various locations that were somehow controlled by the Akai Media Consortium. Some sufficiently legitimate business enterprises were pursued, and some others that weren't sufficiently legitimate ones were also pursued, from time to time in those various locations. For various members of the rather large Akai Media Consortium worked on either side of the Akai Media Consortium's various business-related enterprises, and there were some that worked on both, as well.

Kagome soon rose from the couch and went to her room, encountering her brother Sota and her Grandfather playing with the family cat Buyo in a hall leading to it. They were rubbing the cat's stomach, and teasing them a little bit with a ball of yarn, when Kagome came upon them both in that hall. She looked at them both briefly, and then turned away from them to head to her room as originally planned. As she passed by them in that hall, she also thought, "Doesn't matter whether they're old or young, males are so juvenile sometimes. I wish they'd not tease Buyo like that, though."

She soon set her book on the desk in her room, and then moved to her closet to find a light jacket to wear to the mall where her friends would most likely find her by themselves. As she searched for a light jacket, she thought, "I hope that Indiana Jones doesn't drag me off on another hunting mission when I want to be with my friends." After their mutual return to modern-day Tokyo, she had watched all the movies that were then out in that movie series featuring Indiana Jones in them. And she somehow saw at least a few similarities between her still-recent acquaintance and Indiana Jones, for at least some yet-unknown reason. Though she would never call him "Indiana Jones" to his face, most likely, she had secretly adopted that as one of her nicknames for him, just the same. Just as she'd also given him the nickname Red Boy not too long after their return to modern-day Tokyo, by the way.

She soon found a suitable enough jacket for her purposes and desires here, and slipped it on seconds later. Then she picked up a nearby purse, took some money out of a dog-shaped bank, and eventually left her room behind again. She then went out her home's front door and got on a mostly green and white bicycle, just before her mother rushed to her side, all of a sudden. Before Kagome could get away from her home well enough, then, her mother gave her a somewhat small grocery list of items she wanted Kagome to try to pick up while she was out with her friends, if at all possible.

"Okay, Mother, I'll see what I can do to bring those things home with me when I return here. But I'd really like to see my friends now, if I can, please."

"I understand quite fully enough, Kagome. Have fun, then, if at all possible."

Kagome soon pedaled her bike to a nearby mall, and met up with a few of her friends from her school for a while. However, her peaceful outing with them was not to remain such for the rest of her time with them at the current time, unfortunately. For just as they were about to accompany each other to a nearby movie theater, she somehow caught a flash of red in the crowds near her, and sounds of great panic.

She had a very bad feeling about this, so she suddenly said, "Girls, find somewhere safe to hide, if at all possible. Don't ask me any questions right now, but just do it. For I can't give you any answers just yet."

Her friends shot her some looks of complete bafflement now, of course. But when they all saw her eyes had stopped twinkling and had turned quite stern indeed, they complied immediately with her instructions here, hoping that she would eventually let them know why she had told them to hide here well enough. When they were sufficiently safe from any potential harm at the current time, and she was sure that they wouldn't be able to see her again for a while, she ducked into a nearby deserted alley and pulled several things out of her purse. Those things were parts of a bow that Kaede had given her before she'd shattered the Shikon no Tama, and when not joined together, they looked like simple fans with a radius of about eight inches, more or less, or a ball of rainbow-colored yarn. However, with a press of a certain area on each fan, their appearances would change drastically, and almost instantly turn into certain parts of a simple recurved bow as needed. The yarn would then mysteriously change somehow to bowstrings, once the assembly of the bow was complete, and she'd string that bow again in no more than a minute, under normal enough circumstances. She completely assembled her bow in exactly 55 seconds, and then raced out of the deserted alley. She grabbed up random sticks and pipes as she did so now, and even as she headed towards where she'd suddenly seen the flash of red mere moments before. The random sticks and pipes suddenly turned into arrows, and her purse then into a quiver on her back, somehow.

When she finally got close enough to see quite well enough what was going on, what she saw was something she never expected to see. And when she did, she wished she hadn't seen it at all in the first place, for that matter.

Hmmm, I really wonder just what she could have seen that she wished she didn't want to see here in any way whatsoever. I'm so not going to tell you all here just yet, for sure. But you'll all just have to wonder what it is until I post the next chapter to this story here, of course. Whatever it is can't be all that good now, can it? Highly doubtful, at best, for sure, people. Please stay tuned for the next exciting chapter of Be Careful What You Wish For. Until next time, then, everyone, This is The Universal Storyteller now saying, "Over and out."