Shippou was playing in the middle of a field-like clearing, chasing after the butterflies and insects. Kagome was standing in the middle of it, watching Shippou play while standing guard all the same. The demon appeared behind Kagome, but she slowly turned around to face him.

He looked human enough, but there were obvious signs he was a demon. His hair was black, but it had a strange blue tint to it along with a few silver streaks, and it came to his knees, although it was completely straight, except for his bangs and forelocks. His eyes were emerald green with a few golden specks in them. The most unusual about him though were his clothes. His pants were black, and looked similar to sweat pants, though they were made of a noticeably thinner cloth. His shirt was like Inu Yasha's white undershirt, though his was navy blue and the sleeves went to his wrists. Over that, he had a slightly lighter blue piece of material, which went to his knees and split from his waist to his knees. It had on that a faint black outline of a wild dog or a wolf. His belt was a dark emerald green, and it tied on his left side, displaying two two-foot trails of extra material that faded in dark blue at the ends. His claws were black and a tail followed him, almost like Kouga's except his barely touched the ground and was black and silver streaked like his hair. To top it off, he had inu ears similar to Inu Yasha's on top of his head, though his were black with silver tips.

And he had very deadly weapons. A sword hung from his waist next to a dagger, and two more daggers were concealed under his pants, near his ankles.

"Hello Kagome."

Inu Yasha had come back to the village earlier and said that Kagome had not been home. Mirouku and Sango were flying above the treetops on Kirara looking in the clearings for Kagome and Inu Yasha was searching in the heavily wooded areas. They once thought they had seen her at a distance, but there was nothing in the clearing when they were within landing distance of it. Soon they found Inu Yasha waiting for them. He searched the entire area, but there was nothing. Since it was almost dark, they headed back to the village, all of them sad.

Then, at noon the day after her eighteenth birthday, she suddenly showed back up in the village. No harm had befallen her or Shippou. She simply said she wanted to get away from Inu Yasha and just relax in the woods with Shippou, and he stuck to her story. They had been deep in the woods, deeper than Inu Yasha and the others had looked. Not a single member of their gang believed this story, but they did not argue, seeing how she had not came back hurt. She stayed there for a few days before heading home, without Inu Yasha. She said she would only be there for a couple of hours, and promised she would come back before sunset. She had missed her birthday, again, and said she only wanted to spend a little while with her family before she came back for a couple of months to look for the remaining Jewel Shards. She promised this to Inu Yasha, then left early the next morning. They figured by around three the hanyou would go get her, but he shocked them. He stayed on top of Keade's hut's roof the entire day. Obviously having Kagome there for months without going home was a big enough bribe to keep him there.

But just as the sun was setting and the hanyou about to go get Kagome, she came walking up to the hut. She saw Inu Yasha on top of the hut as she approached, and had a few words with him, before going inside the hut. She explained that she had went home to pick up a few new outfits she had had made. She said they were some type of fighting kimono, and pulled one of the more elaborate ones out. Her outfit resembled the outfit that the mysterious demon she and Shippou had met in the forest, though hers were varying shades of emerald where his were blue, and her belt was black ending in emerald. The design was very different as well. It was a faint silver outlined rose, with a black outlined bow on the front. Across the back was stitched in black the symbols for hope, love, and power, along with a black outline of an arrow.

"Inu Yasha!" Kagome yelled at him that a snake demon approached him from behind. After a week of unsuccessful lead following, they were stalled in Keade's village for a few days waiting for the new moon to pass. Then they got a break as Kagome sensed a few Shards south. They had been searching for a little more than a week when they found a few Shards. They were fighting off a group of random demons, five of which had minuscule shards. Kagome had trouble finding where they were located because they were so small, although she had retrieved four of them. The last one was the largest, although it still took Kagome a few extra seconds to find where it was. "The Shard is in its tail!"

"Gotcha!" Inu Yasha sliced a good portion of its tail off easily, considering it wasn't any larger than Kagome. Mirouku then purified the head easily as Kagome pointed out exactly where the Jewel Shard was.

"That only leaves a tiny bit less of the Jewel to find. Even after factoring in the three known Shards, we still have a lot of work ahead. This is starting to seem impossible." Kagome sighed as she tucked the necklace with the gem on it under her outfit. She sat down at the base of a nearby tree and shut her eyes. Then just as suddenly as she sat down, she sprang to her feet, facing north, and with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

"Two Shards heading this way fast."

End Chapter

Hello again! Thank you for all the lovely reviews! I decided to go ahead and post this chapter. I'm tired of waiting a week. I might update again at the end of the week, but I don't know.
If you think you know why Kagome disappeared and who the guy in the future and who the demon is, please email me. I read all emails I get, and I don't block anything. My email is inuyashafanatic4ever and the part after the sign is yahoo .com .
Thanks again for reading!

Kat-Lyn