WHAT EVERYONE IS BOUND TO WANT

chapter 2

INTRODUCTION:

The concept of summoning is an old tier trick that has been around for centuries. It involves a small hole in the dimensions created and controlled by the individual tier. These artificial dimensions can be accessed by one door way, and are said to reflect the tier's power. In all my years of inexperience, I have never been able to even come close to cutting a whole world open. It is very advanced magic, something that is actually not very common now days. They teach it in the academies, though it's an advanced placement class, and only offered to seniors.

I had never met any tier, demon, or holy person who could conjure things. The science of the whole thing is absolutely insane. To know how to cast the right tie, create something so complex, fill it with objects and control it…the mere thought is overwhelming. But for a child to be able to do a summoning, absolutely unheard of. Well, that is, until Shippo came around.

When he first showed me he could summon things, a toy top, acorns, mushrooms; I was amazed. I remember asking him how big his dimension was, his reply, 'very small compared to what my dad can do. Mine's only the size of a kitchen drawer. But my dad's, he says it's as big as our whole house!'

Shippo lived in a very nice house. I was impressed.

CHAPPY TWO: SHIPPO

"Block!"

I quickly put up a barrier, grunting softly when it was hit with the small blasts of youkai.

"Don't let them hit you!"

"No duh! Shut up!"

I watched as several blue flames came flying at me seemingly out of nowhere. I rolled to the side when one came from my left, then was quickly knocked down when another hit my back. It didn't burn, but I could feel the cool chill of the spring wind on my back when it burnt part of my shirt to ash. Two more came at me as I threw up another barrier, to my surprise, when they hit, they only continued to push against it, instead of bouncing off or disintegrating on site. My eyes widened a little more with every second they continued to fight me. I was pushed back several feet when my shield began to crack under the pressure. I let out a small gasp and broke out in a small sweat. Shippo watched me from a distance, seemingly studying what it was I was doing and if I was doing it right.

I felt a dip in the strong youkai that was pushing to overcome me, and glanced to the side just in time to see Shippo throw about five more balls of his fire. On instinct, or perhaps it was just plain old stupidity, I dropt my barrier and started running around the shrines large court yard.

One of them hit the back of my leg, and once again my clothes were reduced to a sad little bunch of ashes. I ran passed Shippo, who was contently watching me run around like a crazed chicken, a pissed off chicken. I sprinted around the sacred tree several times, shouting at the smiling kitsune the entire time and trying my best to avoid the power fallowing me. More of his fox fire hit me, and I yelled out to him in rage when more of my clothes was burnt, leaving me in about half of what my sweats used to be and a tank that was beginning to look more like a work out bra.

"You damn kit! What is the point of this?" I screeched, jumping over a rock and rolling into a crouch on the ground, trying to evade the last four flames.

Shippo only laughed at me, running his hand threw his hair. "I would find a way to destroy those if I were you, any more of this and you'll be completely necked!"

I glared at him, which only made him laugh harder. "This is not funny! You're such a child!"

His laughs stopped quickly, and his eyes fallowed me as I once again made my way back towards him. "I'm not a child Kagome! Now man up and stop running!"

"When Sango hears of this she's going to kick your butt, pervert!" I yelled again.

I quickly stopped running, and turned around, kicking my leg up in time to hit one of the flames that were heading towards what was left of my top. To my surprise, it quickly dissipated into the air around me. I didn't get much time to be proud of myself for destroying it before the last three came at me. I swung my leg up again, successfully hitting two at a time. They disappeared. So that was how it worked...Physical contact only.

Before I was able to ponder it anymore, the last one hit me square in the back, leaving the last of my top to fall to the ground. I turned beat red, and turned around to once again yell at Shippo, only to find him unconscious at the base of the goshinboku, Sango standing over him with her hand balled up in a fist.

She glanced up at me, a wicked grin on her face, "Feeling the chill of the morning, Kagome?"

I only rolled my eyes, picking up the white piece of fabric that used to be my favorite tank. I took a moment to try to catch my breath. The reiki I had pushed into my muscles to help me move faster had drained me.

"Your one to talk," I muttered, striding over to her. "At least I wear something under my clothes when I train, unlike you...tell me, what exactly is under that taijiya armor you wear?"

"Oh shut up! And get some clothes on will you? I want to get to the campus by one."

"Well, it doesn't matter how long it takes us; last time I checked, Shippo was driving."

Sango looked down at him and grumbled, lightly taping him with her toe, "He should be up soon, I didn't hit him that hard. Now seriously, go get some clothes on! If your brother or grandpa saw you running around like that they'd be ashamed!"

I merely laughed at her, waving over my shoulder as I made my way back to the house to change.

We were all leaving to the institute today, all papers were turned in, all clothes packed, and everyone was excited to finally be going. Classes still didn't start for another week, but the headmaster felt it was best to arrive early and get settled in. Today was all about getting there and finding your dorm room to unpack your things. All week instructors and upperclassmen were going to be giving tours of the campus, so we wouldn't have to worry about getting there on time or being late for anything. Then on Wednesday there was an optional class run through, mostly for freshmen, where you could get your schedule, meet your teachers, and find out what you would be doing every day. For the rest of the week, you could simply explore the grounds and meet the people you were going to be living with.

It all seemed easy enough.

I opened the door to my bed room and quickly made my way to the outfit I had laid out this morning, before going to the bathroom to take a quick shower and get ready. Once I had finished, I put my hair up in a high pony tail and donned the light red sundress. There was a light tap on the bathroom door, and before I could say come in, a bright orange head popped in.

"Sango said to come up and help you with your bags?" He questioned lightly.

I nodded my head once, and then gestured for him to walk into the still steamy room. "Would you help me tie this in my hair first?" I asked, holding out a silky red ribbon. He took it with a smile, tying a complicated bow and pinning it with a bobby pin so it wouldn't tighten or loosen itself.

"Would you like me to tie this one too?" he asked, tugging lightly on the matching ribbon that was hanging silently at my waist.

I nodded again, turning my head so I could see the pretty little bow he had made.

"I'm still upset with you." I mumbled softly.

He patted my shoulder softly, letting me know that he was finished. "I know, but I've got to say, that was ridiculously funny."

I merely rolled my eyes. "My bags are on the bed if you'd like to take them down for me."

"Sure, sure." He mumbled before walking out.

I checked myself over once more in the mirror. Satisfied that everything seemed in place and I was ready to face the day, I headed out the door, looking back over my shoulder at the small room that I had called my own since I was two. My drawers empty, the closet bare, and my desk clear of any picture or trinket that I had ever found endearing. Kami, I was going to miss this place.

As I turned to the door, a sharp glint caught my eyes. I walked back to the center of the room. On the floor, lying partially obscured by the corner of my bed was a small compact. The container sent light fragments across the floor around it, the silver glinting off a square of sun that flitted in through the window, splitting up the rays. I reached down and picked it up, cold and heavy in my hands. It obviously wasn't mine, but I couldn't think of who could have dropped it in here.

I inspected it casually, and without a second thought turned the little latch and opened it. At first it was just a compact. Sitting with a mirror on the top lid, my reflection was there. But then it wasn't. It moved, it shimmered, there was a flash, and then everything around me was blue.

I heard a shout from behind me, someone pulling my arm, but it was too late. Both of us were hurdling into blue nothingness. As we fell and were tossed about, the compact was pulled from my hands. By who or what I didn't know, but the force was undeniably alive, an active yank of the silver sphere.

I squeezed my eyes shut from the chaos, the hand around my arm pulling me to a solid body. I looked up in surprise. Shippo looked around us, his brow furrowed. He was not expecting this.

And just as suddenly as the shifting blue came, it was gone. Something solid rocked under our feet, and Shippo let out a relieved sigh.

"Are you all right Kagome?"

I lifted my head from his chest and looked around in astonishment. The shimmering colors that had surrounded us were gone, yes, but there was still blue, so much blue. It was an ocean. We were floating, on a wooden raft…in the middle of the god damned ocean!

"Shippo where are we?"

"I guess I should have expected this. I didn't realize I dropped the mirror until you had already found it." He paused for a moment, scratching the back of his head and looking out at the blue water, "I suppose, though, that I was just lucky to have grabbed you before it closed."

He looked at me suddenly with an intense eye, "Are you all right Kagome?"

I nodded my head. I stepped out of the circle of his arms, under my feet the raft rocked. As I moved back, Shippo also took a step away from me, evening out our weight on the wood so we wouldn't flip.

"Well, welcome to Shippo Land!" He grinned, spreading his arms out and gesturing to the surrounding sea.

"To what?"

"To Shippo Land, where all dreams come true."

I stared at him with a blank expression for a few moments. "Oh my," I whispered, finally understanding where we were, "Shippo, how is this even possible. No one has ever traveled into another's summoning dimension!"

"Yeah, it's odd right? But I've never tried either. No one else has ever opened the compact." He sat himself down, wincing as a piece of wood scratched his leg. I sat across from him, and once again looked around.

"Where are we?" I asked again, though this time taking the question on a more specific run.

"No clue."

I stared.

"What? How do you have no clue? Haven't you been here before?" I asked incredulously.

"Nope, never been to the ocean before. There's a tower on the main land, I don't really leave there."

There was an ocean… anda tower. What in the world…

"How big is this place?"

"Like I said, no clue. I've never really explored. But I it's pretty big, I mean, look around you."

I did just that. The ocean was enormous, and Shippo was an idiot.

"Wait, wait, and wait!" I screamed suddenly, "You have made up an entire world, and you've never left to travel around? Shippo, this place is amazing; the entirety of Japan could fit in here easily! When we were children all you could stuff inside this place was a couple of children's toys!"

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked out into the distance, avoiding my eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. When I was about twelve the tower appeared," He squinted his eyes at the horizon, "Look! You can see it there!" He pointed abruptly.

I looked out to where he was pointing. The sky was lit up orange and red like a sunset, but on the horizon all I could make out was a purple light, like a star. No sun, just star; big, blazing, bright…star.

"I don't see anything." I grumbled.

"It's right there, next to Vulpecula." he said.

I started, "Vulpecula? You name that purpled monstrosity after a constellation? That was the coolest name you could come up with?" I asked.

He turned back to me in surprise, "What?"

"Vulpecula?"I asked again.

"Yeah. It's a compilation of stored up youkai from over the years. I began pushing it together when we were younger," he blushed lightly, "you actually gave me the idea to do it."

"When did I give you the idea to-?"

He waved his hand in front of his face, "Never mind, but the tower is in that direction. Come here."

I stepped over to him cautiously. He kneeled down in front of me, "Get on my back, I'll take us over to land."

"Running over water, never tried that before…"

He smiled at me over his shoulder.

"Just keep your hands to yourself please."

"No promises"

(shift)

The tower, as Shippo called it, turned out to be just that; a large, over bearing, 32 stories, glass tower. When we walked inside, I was so stunned into silence that Shippo probably thought I was going to be ill.

After walking through the electric sliding glass doors, we were met with a receptions desk. Behind the counter sat what I could only describe as a chibi Shippo. The little guy grinned up at us from his place at a computer, saluted Shippo, then pushed a button to call down an elevator. To the left of the desk were orange leather couches, and I could hear an air conditioner blowing somewhere in the background.

My mind felt overwhelmed. I tried to take a breath of the cool air, hoping it would calm me down enough to get a good look at my surrounding. It didn't help much, everything still made no sense.

The elevator was glass, see through walls that let you see out in all directions. The building was a wonder.

Floor seventeen appeared to be empty. The twenty second floor was filled with boxes of plaster and tins of paint; hanging on the wall was a sign that read 'under renovations, please see the front desk for more information'. The elevator stopped on the Twenty fifth floor, where another chibi Shippo stepped on, waited silently and patiently, then stepped off three floors up. I held my breath the entire time he stood next to me, but he didn't seem to mind me or Shippo.

In the upper left corner of the glass platform was a plastic, tawny speaker that played a continuous loop of 'Beautiful World' by Utada Hikaru.

Shippo leaned casually at ease on the glass wall, whistling merrily to the tune of the song, watching each floor of the building pass by leisurely.

At one point we reached the top floor. The elevator dinged, and the doors opened to a large room, the center of which held an old mahogany desk.

"Finally." Shippo muttered, stepping into the office, dragging me by the wrist.

I walked over the blue carpet to one of the floor to ceiling windows. Outside, divided perfectly by a straight line, lay a hot looking desert on the left, and a tropical rain forest on the right. When I put my ear to the window, I could hear the call of monkeys and Toucans in the distance.

"This has got to be some kind of ass backwards dream, Shippo." I whispered with my forehead pressed against the cool window.

"What?" he asked.

I turned my head to glare at him. He sat comfortably at the desk, shuffling papers around and opening drawers, looking for something.

"I said this has got to be some ASS BACKWARDS dream, Shippo! What is the seventh hell is up with this place? I feel like my name is Alice and I've tumbled down a rabbit's hole!"

"Sorry, it is a bit to take in," he said, running his hand through his hair and motioning me forward with his finger, "come here."

I walked towards him obediently, stopping about a foot away from him. He put his hands on my hips and pushed me down. "Sit" he commanded. There was a puff of blue smoke, and a soft rolling office chair appeared under me.

He opened up the bottom drawer in the desk to toss me a cold bottle of water. I caught it gratefully, twisting the lid and taking slow sips.

He returned to his search once he saw me drinking.

"What are you looking for?" I asked

He didn't look up, "The compact," he murmured, "It's programmed to come back here if it's dropped in this world."

I gulped nervously, "Um, and what if it wasn't dropped?" I asked.

He looked up at me with a start, "Did you still have it? If you do, we can just open it and go back home now."

I shook my head, the bow in my hair thumping against my temple. "No, I don't have it. But when we, uh, fell in here, it felt like something grabbed it from me. Is that what normally happens?"

His eyes narrowed. "No. That is not what normally happens. Did you see what grabbed it?"

I shook my head again, quickly. "My eyes were closed."

He put his hand to his head and rubbed his temples. "Crap. I really hope some fish didn't swallow it when we were over the ocean."

There are fish?

He pushed a button on the intercom on his desk, "Number 201, you there?" he asked.

I listened in amazement as a high pitched, distinctly Shippo voice answered.

"No Sir! 372 here. 201 took some vacation days this week; he won't be back until the Vulpecula festival."

"Great" Shippo rolled his eyes, "I need you to organize a search party to be sent out to the fifth, seventh, and eighth districts of the fifth quadrant." He said.

I looked at him with my brow raised, "Fifth quadrant? That doesn't even make sense."

He waved his hand at me and kept talking, "Have them sufficiently stalked with supplies for a 24 hour excursion. Then send them up to my office for their assignment."

"Yes Sir, how many would you like in the platoon?"

He seemed to think about that for a moment, I scoffed.

"Just have a standard unit for a rank seven mission put together. That should be enough."

"Right away Sir! They'll be up as soon as we can get 'em! 372 out!"

Shippo leaned back in his chair with a whistle, "That damn 201, I don't know where he gets the gall. He's already taken seventeen sick days this year, and now a vacation?"

"Shippo?" I called.

"Yeah?"

"Explain; now."

He looked confused for a moment. "Explain what?"

I tapped my foot impatiently on the carpet. "Explain just what the hell is going on here. How long have you had this place in order? Why does it sound like you have an army of mini Shippos? And how do you get air conditioning?" I growled.

"It's kind of a long story…"

"Well, it sounds to me like we have time until your platoon gets here, so that should be fine."

"I don't know, they're very organi-" He began.

"Shippo!" I yelled.

"Fine, fine," he whispered, putting his hands up in defense. He opened his mouth to speak again. For one satisfied second I thought I might get a solid explanation.

Then suddenly another small puff of blue spoke sputtered up from on top of the desk, leaving a neatly folded memo sealed with an acorn wax seal. Shippo sighed, once again ignoring me, and opened up the paper.

He read over it quickly.

"This is going to make you mad, but I need to check up on electrical productions." He looked up at me again, this time his eyes pleading, "I'm sorry Kagome, please don't go off on me, but I've got to get down there. Seems like news has spread to the lower levels that I'm back."

He got up and held his hand out to me, "Looks like the communications department has upped the ante." He breathed in heavily through his nose, and then let out a breath of cool air through his mouth, "I've been so concerned with school that I haven't been able to concentrate on making sure that everything here is running smoothly."

Once in the elevator he pressed the button for the eighth and negative third floors. We traveled down in an awkward (at least for me) silence.

"So, what's wrong with Electrical Productions?" I asked, trying to fill in the quiet even though I was sure I really didn't want to know.

"They're trying to outsource their help desk, but it's causing too many problems with the Shippo Clones on the other side of the desert, apparently their accents are too thick to understand, and their generator is constantly breaking down, causing them to lose power. The only problem with that is whenever someone is having power troubles, they call the electrical productions help desk, and from there they're redirected to the main branch where a help team can be sent out to fix the problem. Since they are the help desk though, they don't know what to do."

I didn't ask him any more questions after that.

(shift)

I got dropped off, to my own irritation, on the eighth floor; which just so happened to be the Board of Education's main base. Before abandoning me, Shippo had the decency to introduce me to 43, one of the original clones of the first year, as Shippo had labeled him.

I was shocked and horrified to find that 43 had grey hairs and a small grey beard that surrounded an otherwise un-aged face. Other than that though, he looked like all the rest of the clones; small with a blue bow in his hair, and a traditional blue kimono with a fox pelt vest covering his torso.

"43 here will tell you everything you want to know about Shippo land." Shippo had said before looking down at 43, "You brought the pamphlet right?" he asked.

43 had nodded, then handed me a thick brochure titled "One a clone is a many; the do's and don'ts of a healthy working environment".

Once I was being led away, I saw Shippo continue down the elevator to the underground floors of the tower.

(shift)

My mind was numb.

I had watched a power-point on the infrastructure of 'A Clone's Society'. I had seen a slide show of the companies last 'Vulpecula Festival'; an accumulation of fireworks and traditional Japanese food booths set up along the beach. I then saw a news article on why the clones shouldn't light fireworks by the rain forest, pictures in black and white of burning green forest and fleeing birds. I was then taken on a tour of the Tower, but not before first being instructed on the emergency exits and side stair ways.

When we were walking, and I was delirious with an information overload, I had laughed and asked, "Why do you guys need fire escapes when you're flame retardant?"

I had meant it as a joke (the clones actually had a great sense of humor, like Shippo's), but he had answered me anyway.

"We don't catch fire, but the clothes are 100 percent cotton."

(shift)

I was lying face down on one of the orange couches in the front lounge. My mind was cloudy with images of mini dorm beds and short auburn haired foxes.

"Kagome." Shippo whispered to me softly, tugging on a lock of my hair.

I turned my head towards him, but even though I was looking right at him, I couldn't make out any features.

"Kagome," He tugged again, "They found the compact on the outskirts of the jungle. Apparently the monkeys learned how to tie a harness to the seagulls and ride them; one of them pulled the compact out of your hand when we were coming in."

Another tug, "Come on, let's go home."

"How long have we been here? My head hurts." I turned my head away again and rubbed my face on the leather.

"Nearly eight hours."

"What about Sango?"

"Don't worry about her, time runs a little differently here. You can get a nice nap in on the car ride to the school."

I mumbled a muffled yes.

He swung me up into his arms. I buried my face into the side of his neck and wrapped my arms around him.

"This was all a really weird dream wasn't it?" I asked softly.

He rubbed the skin on my arms lightly with the pad of his thumb. "Sure, Kagome"

A flash of blue light behind my eye lids, and then we stood in a square of orange sunlight as it flitted in through my bedroom window.