Disclaimer: Inuyasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi and all other entities that hold any rights to the series. There is no profit being made by this written fiction, save for the enjoyment I am hoping to supply you all with it.

And so, without further ado,

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Gravity
Chapter 3: Unknown Town and Invisible Crowns

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Just as soon as she had relaxed her head onto his tail, he flung it solidly so that she was ripped away from its warm security. She was thrown onto the ground, on her aching butt once again.

"You have to stop doing that," she demanded irritably.

"We're here," he simply announced, looking ahead at the dimly lighted village in front of them.

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"You'll have to go with me," Kagome plainly concluded, her eyes warily fixated at the quiet village ahead.

"I will not."

His voice was soft and calm like a harp, and somehow thickly marked a period on their discussion.

"But who knows where we are?" Kagome implored, clasping her hands together as she shuddered from her memory, once again glancing at the dingy object of her suspicion. "I'll have you know that the last time I came frolicking down one of those guileful vortexes, I was almost killed!"

"I assure you, miko, that you are in no safer place here with me if you don't get going," Sesshoumaru fumed gravely, "In fact, if not at this second, I promise you a consequence of a much greater magnitude."

"Fine, I'll go by myself. But if I get killed out there, just remember you're on your own. But you know what, no, you won't be! My ghost will hunt your sorry self your whole life, and I heard you youkai live quite a long time—" Kagome jabbered on, her voice fading as she clumsily started on the narrow path toward the village.

The torturous human female was just about to introduce him to this infamous 'headache'. He watched her slowly blend into the night, toward the weak light of the village, and narrowed his eyes as he instinctively scanned the surrounding area. Once determining that the girl would be safe, Sesshoumaru ambled to a nearby tree, specifically choosing one with a staunch, smooth trunk, and casually sat by it.

He laid one leg outstretched in front of him and the other, bent toward his chest. For a youkai of impregnable strength, he felt strangely drained. An irony, for he had just narrowly eluded being drowned with the girl. As a dog youkai, water was not a favorable element. And within a day's time, he twice approached his known weakness for the sake of the miko. Sesshoumaru allowed his eyes to close.

Descending down the cliff would have been facile enough to prevent had the impudent girl only kept her limbs to herself.

And her lips—

Sesshoumaru's thin eyebrows visibly narrowed together, his lips in a taut, unexpressive line. Never had he felt the slightest urge to indulge in such mundane manners, and therefore never have. The fact that a human had freely treated herself to any part of him tickled his pride as a youkai lord. The quittance for her theft shall be laborious and extend throughout her puny human life.

The enigma of the well was enormously baffling. He hadn't a second to think when he realized they have somehow dived more than five hundred yards into the ocean. His superb speed—fortunately still applicable within water, cursed that it was—had supplied enough necessity for them to survive.

And the truth stood that he had saved her—and in spite of the trouble it had delivered him to do so. What deranged manner of sense his late father had condemned him with would be disposed of as soon as knowledge of their location was known. He was no rash and senseless fool, whose pride ran rampantly without wisdom.

Nevertheless, that accursed woman had rendered his efforts pointless. Just as he had stylishly persuaded those barbaric youkai to choke out the direction of the nearest human village, she decided it would be timely to fall a second time.

And he had saved her a second time.

At that moment, a frightened squeal echoed through the open lea. He hesitated. It had come earlier than he had anticipated. Sesshoumaru smirked when he caught the subtle scent of her fresh blood in the traveling wind and soon after sensed her aura flare with pure frustration.

If she could, Sesshoumaru would not doubt that the girl would, in fact, devote her afterlife devastating his long youkai existence.

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The sudden step was invisible under the inky night sky. She easily missed it and stumbled roughly onto the ground, earning her a long but shallow gash on her thigh. By now, Sesshoumaru could fully bathe in the blame she showered him with. Twice had she fallen earlier that day because the youkai was unfamiliar with a proper and reasonable approach, especially to someone as distracted as she had been.

"He takes his royalty way too seriously," Kagome mumbled, aggravated. "They might just point machine guns at me instead of an arrow this time."

Her body ached severely from the minor but countless wounds she'd received throughout her ordeal and the chilly wind pricked her skin through her damp, torn clothes. But it felt numb now, and Kagome wasn't sure whether that was because of the cold or because she desperately forced her mind not to think about the pain. She and Sesshoumaru needed to get out of here and back to Feudal Japan.

What if he decided to go berserk and go on a killing spree? She can't allow him to cause such a violent rampage. And knowing Sesshoumaru—

Knowing Sesshoumaru, he's unlike any other youkai. Kagome has never actually seen him slaughter a human before. His aversion toward humans was transparent, and he wasted no effort in hiding it. Rin was a surprising exception and Kagome applauded him for that. She would even admire him if only she'd let herself. He had endeavored to kill her before, but his ambition were buried so deep into his heart and engulfed its entire volume, that it spared no room for emotions—only judgment through his mind.

An ambition borne from knowing that his father had not bequeathed him with Tetsusaiga, when he was the more patent choice as its heir. Was Sesshoumaru, in fact, familiar with an emotion other than animosity? Just as she reached the entrance to the village, Kagome decided he must recognize the feeling of betrayal, too.

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Upon clear sight of the village, a feeling of relief washed over Kagome.

The dim lights from the village were neither from candles nor oil lamps, but from authentic light bulbs. She lectured herself not to inflate her hopes too much—2020 can very well still have light bulbs, and after all, she still didn't have a clue of where and when they are. Taking a breath, she advanced under the wooden post signifying that this village was actually a town, called "Kibou Town".

She identified the first street as the market area. If it wasn't for subtle modern variations, Kagome would have thought that they were still somewhere in Feudal Japan. Store signs were one difference and the road was aged but was evidently paved. The buildings were two-story high and the second floors revealed hints of being designed as a home for the store owners, like the freshly washed laundry hanging by the balconies.

All the shops were closed, which implied that the hour must be late. Not a soul lingered on the narrow street and Kagome felt ridiculous and fairly afraid just standing in the middle of it. A part of her screamed "ghost town" but she refused to heed it. It was literally vital that she acquire the information she needed to securely go back to the Feudal Era with Sesshoumaru.

"My lady," a soothing voice exclaimed faintly behind her.

Kagome whisked around and studied the girl that stood in front of her. Right off the bat, she determined that the girl was about her own age. From the lamps outside the stores, Kagome could admire the toffee-tinted hair that brushed against the girl's ivory shoulders. She wore an emerald green shift, which bore elegantly with her soft, honey eyes. Needless to mention, she was beautiful, even in spite of the worry invading her gentle features.

Kagome espied an illusive amusement in the girl's eyes before casually tossing the ridiculous thought away. She looked like an honest and innocent bundle of sweets.

"What has happened to you?" the girl wanted to know and Kagome decided that she indeed sounded sincere enough. She smiled, finally letting some relief take over some parts of her.

"A lot," she began.

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"That's quite an ordeal," the comely girl, Meiko, sympathized as she stirred the porridge and kindled the heat on the stove. "I'm so happy I was able to be of some help to you."

Kagome sighed, satisfied with herself. Explaining her dilemma to Meiko had been an ordeal in itself. Saying that she was pretty much dumped by a half youkai for the walking corpse of his inert ex lover in the Feudal Era sounded irrevocably ludicrous, even to Kagome. And let's not even start with the fact that her unexpected encounter with his full youkai half brother somehow plummeted them both at the bottom of the ocean in some unknown period of time and to this village.

Now that she's reviewing her life over, she realized the absurdity of it all.

It was simply much safer to say that their boat wrecked after a few hours from the time they left the harbor in Tokyo.

Kagome smiled dismally to herself at how much everything has changed so suddenly and sighed in melancholy.

Meiko had kindly escorted her to her warm and lovely home, which reminded Kagome too much of Kaede's hut—only bigger and decked with a full bathroom and a kitchen—and immediately treated her wounds. There was an empty space and folded blankets in the main room and Kagome guessed that Meiko and her said husband must sleep there. She then proceeded to supply Kagome with a thick, sewn blanket and hot tea, and now insisted that she heat some porridge for her.

The icing was in Meiko's words, however. When Kagome casually asked what date it was again, Meiko informed her that it was August 16, 2009. It was an enormous relief to find that they were, in fact, within Kagome's time period.

Kagome couldn't believe her luck in meeting her. It was the first sign that day that assured her she wasn't indefinitely damned for some reason.

"But are you sure it's okay for me to intrude like this?" Kagome asked her shyly.

"Of course it is. I insisted, after all," Meiko answered as she entered the room and carefully laid the steaming bowl of porridge on the center table in front of Kagome.

"Ah, this looks good!" Kagome admitted, her eyes reflecting her grumbling appetite. When she inhaled deeply, she added in excitement, "And it smells good, too. Thank you!"

"I'm glad," Meiko smiled at her as she sat on the pillow opposite of Kagome. After a while, she wondered, "This companion you mentioned, is he not with you?"

"Oh, he's somewhere, but I'm not about to worry about him."

Meiko giggled and the sound of it was as tranquil as window chimes. "I imagine the two of you don't get along very well?"

"You imagine right. He's arrogant and rude—and to think he's so handsome, too," Kagome pondered the contrast in a whisper as she sipped her hot porridge, delighting in the way that it coursed throughout her body and ease the chilblain on her hands.

"Is he? Well, I'd sure love to meet this fellow."

"Speaking of fellows, where is your husband?"

"He has gone to Osaka to buy some things that are harder to find around here, as you can imagine. It's such a small town."

"That's true, but it's also peaceful."

"Yes, my husband loves nature. We are very happy to call this place our home."

"That sounds so perfect. You got married really young, too."

Meiko smiled. "We had no doubts."

Kagome smiled back at her and glanced up thoughtfully at the window, into the splendor of the moon.

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Meiko awoke a few hours later and regarded the empty mattress she'd laid out for Kagome. She simply smiled and reposed back down against her pillow.

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Sesshoumaru sensed her aura approaching. She was calm and smelled of wild flowers. He opened his eyes in anticipation. Considering the length of time she'd been gone, the girl must have received some kind of information instead of just a bath.

In any case, her absence had given him too much time to think and he thought too much in consequence. The annoyance and incessant blabbering that came with her presence interrupted such disturbing thoughts from running through his head.

"Boo!"

Sesshoumaru felt a slight tingle from his stomach—a chuckle strangely not originating from the thought of someone's delirium—and allowed a subtle smirk to play on the corner of his lips. He tilted his head to look at the girl who was peeking at him from behind the tree he sat against.

"You don't honestly think—"

"That I could scare you?" Kagome guessed, "Of course not. But that I would surprise you by actually doing it, sure, I was hoping to accomplish that."

She smiled at the way his eyes widened a little.

Some credit had to be handed to the miko, but that she purposefully reduced his grand status to her level of games boiled his patience with her. How he desired to snap her neck and cease her ceaseless games for good.

"What have you found out?" he inquired instead.

"Plenty. You'll be glad to hear we're at least within my time in the Modern Era."

"That does nothing to please me. Where is the other path to my world?"

"Easy, I'm getting there, alright? It's at my family shrine in Tokyo, which unfortunately, is miles and miles away from here. According to the girl I met, Meiko, we're on the outskirts of Ise, a city south of where the well is."

Kagome bent her knees and sat her butt on her heels. She voiced her concerns, her eyes staring off into the distance. "The only this is, I don't know how we'll get there. The nearest airport is in Osaka, but even then, we don't have any money."

"An airport?"

"Yeah. You know, airplanes— Oh," she sighed, "Nevermind. We can't afford it anyhow."

"Then we shall travel," Sesshoumaru suggested as he began to stand up.

Kagome only peered up at him in shock. "There's no way we're traveling on foot the whole way!"

"Of course there is. I'm aware that you've had your share of it, in search of that useless jewel."

"Well, I can't. Meiko has restricted me from roaming about until I'm all better. It'll be rude to leave after all she's done!"

Sesshoumaru growled impatiently down at her. "That girl and what she wants is none of my concern. We leave now or I shall drag you there myself."

"Oh, so clever, because I'm sure you know your way there. This world is a million times different from the Feudal Era, and you know as well as I do that, yes—sorry to say but—I'm your only hope of getting back."

"This Sesshoumaru does not hope."

"You hope of getting Tetsusaiga!"

Sesshoumaru glared malevolently at her, but said nothing. She thinly tested his patience and his appetite to dispose of her was becoming ungovernable.

She wasn't oblivious. His searing urge to kill her played in his eyes, like it was a projector to his very mind. Like autumn, she felt her throat dry up at the sight of winter—which in this case, was Sesshoumaru.

Admittedly, she confessed that her accusation was harsh. After she had concluded where his issue with the Tetsusaiga had stemmed from, she hadn't wanted to use it against him. But there was a measure to his spoiled attitude and she had to draw that line before it got out of control. If she'll be traveling with him, she wanted that cold and spoiled façade tamed, even just a little.

Somewhere in her heart, she wanted to understand him. She doesn't really want to hate him, and his efforts to gain her hatred were becoming tiresome. Meiko was right—they really don't get along. But she knew, as he did, that they were going to have to find a way.

And respect for each other will be reciprocal, or else nothing will come of it.

"Now, look," she started after a while of warring stares, "I've brought you some food. You must be hungry, right?"

When she turned to face him, he appeared like a stubborn child who was avoiding troublesome conversation by looking somewhere—anywhere—else but toward the conflict. She couldn't help the smile that plastered gently across her face.

Her aura relaxed into contentment and he curiously turned to look at her, his face void of emotions. She smiled a little bigger and threw him an apple, which he caught easily in his palm without averting his piercing, amber eyes from her.

"Sit down," she instructed cheerfully, "There's more here."

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A/N: Let's assume it was 2009. ^^;

Also, I received a critique suggesting that I should tone down the way I write and I tried really hard to do that, so I hope my efforts suffice. :)

Chapter 4 will be up by Sunday, March 14.

So so much love, xAma.