I looked around fearfully as what appeared to be an entire olden-days village surrounded me. My hands were tied behind my back, and my ankles were tied together, so I was sitting uncomfortably on my knees. Poor Bouyo sat beside me, hog-tied, giving me a look that clearly state that he felt that this was all my fault. Furry little brat.

"Look at that hair!" exclaimed someone from the crowd, a woman. They were about 4 yards away all around, but with the soon-to-be setting sun I couldn't make out any faces or defining features, other than the colour of their dresses. "It's yellow, like a pale sun!"

"Do you think she's a foreigner?"

"Is it war?" asked a male from a little to the left of the chatting women.

"Of course! Right at rice planting season too!"

"Do you think it's a Kitsune in disguise?" asked another woman.

"Naw, they're too clever to mess up like that. They'd try to blend in."

"It could be a baby one."

"No. Maybe it's a witch! That certainly is an odd looking cat after all."

"Yeah. That would also explain those odd pink circles in front of her eyes. What do you think they're for?"

"Seeing into our minds I bet! Don't look at them!"

I felt a twitch starting at the corner of my eye. 'Freaking idiots! Their called pink-tinted sunglasses! Where are we, the middle ages!?'

"Make way for High Priestess Kaede!" called some random guy.

An old woman in red and white walked foreword, and got close enough for me to be able to tell that she was very wrinkly and had an eye patch. I raised an eyebrow as she held up a little bag of what was either sand or rice. She took out a handful and through it on me.

"Demon Begone!" she exclaimed.

I shook my head, trying to get the stuff out of my face. "Oi! Quit it, I'm not a demon you old psycho!"

"Are ye not?" she said, ignoring the Psycho comment. "Then why were ye found in the Forest of Inuyasha?"

"She could be a spy from another village." said the man that had announced her.

"Then she be a fool. Who would invade a village as poor as ours?" she turned back to me, moving even closer, narrowing her eye at me. "Child, what be these circles in front of ye's eyes?"

I grinned sarcastically. "They be pink-tinted sunglasses."

"What are they for?"

"For making things pink."

"Hmm…" she reached foreword, taking them gently from my nose, gasping in surprise once she did. "Child! Ye eyes! Such a shade of blue I've never seen! Are ye blind?"

I growled in the back of my throat. I wasn't blind, dammit, just a little! "I can see in bright light. Otherwise I am. You gotta problem with that? No? Then put my damned glasses back on!"

She nodded, placing them back on my nose. "So you use them to hide your eyes?"

"Yeah. The whole milky blue-white colour has a way of making people nervous and announcing it to everybody." at this I sent her a dark glare.

She nodded her head. "I understand, child. What are you doing in our village?"

"I dunno. I was walking in the woods, when suddenly a bunch of grown men in dresses tied me and my cat up and brought us here."

Kaede sent me a disapproving look. "I understand that ye are upset, but ye need not be hostile."

"I am having a bad day, get over it!" I huffed, looking down at Bouyo who I could swear was snickering. "Look, I was getting my cat out of our well house this morning, when some 6 armed lady dragged me into the well and licked me. Her arm came off when I hit her, and then I come out of a different well, and get kidnapped by psycho village people. Could you please let me go so I can get home?"

She looked at me hard for a for a full minute, before she turned to the man. "Let her go. I don't believe she is a threat."

"My cat too!"

Kaede smiled, like I was a little kid, which I admit I might have sounded like for a while. "And her cat."

I sent a bright sparkly smile (one I'd stolen from Kagome) at the youngish man that was untying me. He blushed scarlet (earning himself a glare from Kaede) and quickly undid the ropes. He went to undo Bouyo 's ropes (Bouyo making the job as difficult as possible) and soon I had my Seeing-Eye cat back in my arms.

X

A half hour or so later I sat inside Kaede 's hut, watching the fire above which Kaede seemed to be making stew. It smelled great, but I couldn't see it or Kaede since the sun had gone down, so it cold have been poisoned right in front of me for all I know.

"Here you go, child." said Kaede, holding what felt like a rough bowl against me hand. I accepted it, smiling in the direction of her voice. "Thank you, Kaede-san. It smells great." I said, lifting it to my lips for a sip. "Tastes great too!"

"Thank ye." she said with a smile in her voice. "Please, bear us no ill will. These are times of war, and no stranger is to be welcomed with open arms or trusted."

"We really aren't anywhere near Tokyo are we?" I said weakly.

"To-key-oh? Is that where ye people are from?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Do they all have yellow hair like ye's?"

"Well, no, not really. A few people fake it, but…. My parents were foreigners, and they were both blue-eyed blondes."

"Were?"

"Yeah, they died when I was little. They settled into Japan, a really safe area they thought they could raise a baby in, but were killed by robbers one night."

Kaede sighed. "Aye. I understand ye's plight. My elder sister died many years ago. These times of war are difficult on everyone."

"Uh-huh." I drank a little more of the stew, offering a few pieces of meat to the drowsy cat laying across my knees. "I need to get home, but… I don't know which way to go, or where I am, even."

The hut fell into silence, and the hairs on my neck stood up. I could tell that Kaede was looking at me very hard. "What is ye name, child?"

"Mamoiro Higurashi, ma'am. But a lot of people call me Blue."

"Why?"

"Because my name means Pink."

She chuckled, but abruptly stopped as a crash sounded from outside. Grabbed my cane and we both hurried to the doorway, looking for the source of the noise.

I was scared. I could hear people screaming and running, whatever the thing was was very close, and the terrified braying of a horse had gone three stories into the air. Bouyo was hissing his furry butt off, and had backed himself up against my leg, trying to ward off the thing from me.

"Give me the sacred jewel!" screeched a familiar voice.

"It's the thing from the well!" I gasped, staring wide-eyed in the centipede-woman's direction.

Kaede suddenly pushed me over, and I felt the wind off of something huge flying over me. "It said sacred jewel!" exclaimed Kaede. "Bear ye it still!?"

"I don't know! I've only ever heard of it in passing before!"

"I must have it! I must!" cried the woman from far above.

'That thing… She's after me! Crap!' I thought looking at where I could feel a circle had been formed around Kaede and I.

"Spears and arrows are useless!" hissed one of them. He sounded vaguely like the man I'd unleashed the Kagome Beam on, but I couldn't be certain since he sounded so panicked.

"We must lure it to the dry well!" exclaimed Kaede.

"The one crawled out of?" I asked.

"Aye. In the forest of Inuyasha."

I nodded. Bouyo meowed at my feet, tugging at the leg of my jeans(1). I nodded in understanding, and we both took off towards what I could only assume was the moon, the only thing I could see in the dark night.

"Mamoiro, wait!" cried Kaede, but I was more than capable of booking it when I wanted to, so the stooped old woman had no chance of catching me.

The centipede lady on the other hand……

X

"Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea!" I chanted as I followed Bouyo's purposely loud steps. It was a good thing we were headed right for the moon or else I would have lost him long ago as we went through trees and bushes, the centipede hissing and shouting behind me.

'Someone will come, right?' I thought in panic. 'Someone always comes!'

My lungs were burning and my hands throbbed where my nails had dug into my palms.

'No Kagome to cuss out the bullies, no Hojo-kun to scare them off…. No one I know is anywhere near here! Who will help!? Who will know I'm even in trouble!?'

"Somebody please, Help Me!!"

X