Chapter Three

Old Friends

"Shippo-chan?" Kagome asked again, her eyes wide with surprise and amazement. Could it really be Shippo…?

"Kagome?" he asked in return. His young, boyish voice, the voice Kagome still remembered so well, was now lower, and slightly husky. "Kagome… is that REALLY you?"

She nodded and stood stock still before throwing herself at him and flinging her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. Tears slowly trickled down her cheeks as he hugged her back, just as fiercely.

"Oh, KAMI Shippo! You have no idea how good it is to see a familiar face! Everything's happened so fast!"

She pulled away and stared Shippo in the face. The moment their eyes locked, he knew what she was going to ask. Adverting his eyes, he turned his face to the floor.

"Shippo-chan… what happened? What happened after I was turned into stone? Did InuYasha…" She swallowed. The pain had built up in her throat, making it constrict and close painfully. "Did InuYasha… really… die?"

He finally looked up, his emerald eyes glazed over with indescribable pain. He wouldn't tell her… he couldn't tell her… but he had to. At the very least, he wouldn't tell her the entire truth.

-Flashback-

Shippo ran ahead of Kaede, looking around wildly for Kagome or InuYasha or Sango or Miroku. Hell… even Kirara would be a comforting creature right about now…

He jumped as a groan escaped a red figure, slumped to the ground. Shippo gasped and launched himself forward, resorting to using all fours to get him to the figure faster.

InuYasha lay there, his eyes full of pain, his body bloodied and beaten up. Shippo stopped by his side, his eyes filling with tears. "InuYasha…" he whispered, his tiny hand touching InuYasha's arm.

The hanyou groaned again and turned to face Shippo. A small smile broke across his face. "Keh… I think I'd rather die than with you here brat, but as I was hopin' someone would come along so I wouldn't be alone… Beggars can't be choosers…" he said, but the harsh words were full of love, and Shippo knew that, in his own special way, he was thinking Shippo and telling him how much he meant to the hanyou.

"InuYasha… we have to treat your wounds… I doubt I've ever seen-"

The hanyou looked away, tilting his head so that his bangs covered his golden eyes. "No… Either way… I'll die…"

InuYasha's teeth clenched together as if biting away the pain would help. "Anyways… why should I live? Kagome… She's…she's…"

Shippo gasped. He looked around. A statue of Kagome stood not to far away, tears trailing down its cheeks and her hands clasped over her breast. Then, it struck him… it wasn't a statue of Kagome… it was Kagome…and InuYasha was to scared to admit it that she was as good as dead…

He turned back to Shippo, tears trailing down his cheeks. "Shippo… I didn't get to tell her I love her… If you live long enough to see her… please… tell her… for… me." With that, the hanyou's last breath left his battered lungs.

Shippo sniffled loudly, closing his eyes and taking in shattered breaths. He'd mourn all night for his hanyou friend… the man who had been his hero.

'And,' he vowed, balling his fists in InuYasha's haori. 'I'll tell Kagome… I'll live long enough, no matter what!'

The next day, when they returned from placing InuYasha under the Goshinboku, Kagome was gone.

"Shippo…?"

Kagome's voice wrenched the kitsune out of his memories. Swallowing past the bile that was threatening to rise, he whispered in a raspy voice, "Hai, Kagome… I'm sorry… but he is dead… He's been dead for five hundred years now…"

The young school girl took a step back, reeling in shock. True, she had known it all along; you don't get a reincarnation without dieing, after all, and Itaru was just too much like InuYasha to ignore, but to hear it from somebody else's mouth… to hear the worlds the felt like an arrow or dagger shot or stabbed right where her heart should still be beating…

For somebody else to say it made InuYasha's death more than a dream; it made it real.

Her knees gave way and Kagome slumped to the floor, her fingers curling up, holding the sleeves of her school uniform as she hugged herself. Unwanted tears slowly slipped down her cheeks as she whispered, "I guess he's with Kikyo now… just like he always wanted to be."

Shippo gave a feral growl and knelt by the young girl, hugging her unlike he had ever hugged her before. This hug was more to comfort her than him; more to share the pain, the loss, the fear.

"Don't say that… don't every say that… Before InuYasha died… he asked me to tell you that he loved you… He didn't say it, but I can tell he loved you more than he ever loved Kikyo… He trusted you… and he wouldn't want you crying… Remember? He always hated it when you cried…?"

Kagome gave a weak little chuckle; the sound was watery and more of a soft sob than an actual chuckle.

Wiping her eyes with the heel of her hand, she managed to rasp, "And what of Naraku? I mean… did you defeat him? And Sango-chan? Miroku-sama? Kirara? Kaede-obaachan? What about them? What happened to them?"

Shippo frowned and looked away. "Sango and Miroku died the day you became stone and InuYasha died. Kirara recovered and is still alive, but her back leg was left lame. Kaede died a few years later…"

"And Naraku?" Kagome asked again.

"He's still out there… but unlike five hundred years ago, we can't just barge in and kill him…"

Kagome groaned and leaned away, falling back onto her rump. "My life seriously sucks… I guess I'm never gonna be normal, huh?" she asked, chuckling and continuing to wipe some stray tears away.

Shippo smirked. "You fought demons every day, fell in love with a hanyou, saved the world multiple times, and jumped through time and space through an old well. What do YOU think?"

Itaru cleared his throat and both of them jumped. "So… you really DID jump through the well into the Sengoku Jidai?" he asked, narrowing his violet eyes in thought. Could… could what she had said really have been true? Shigeru Kai was known throughout the business world for his level-headedness, and for his calm demeanor, much like his boss. But… if he was a demon… then could there be more demons in this era… and be as real as humans?

Stories of man eating yokai, blood thirsty brutes that massacred whole kingdoms and still couldn't contain their need for human blood and flesh, raping, pillaging, and murdering innocents filled his mind and he wanted it all to stop.

'But,' a small voice spoke in the back of his head, bringing him back to reality. 'Kai-san is hardly… evil looking, and your family's had him over for over a hundred visits, and he's a really decent guy!'

It was true; Kai-san had come over lodes of times and had hardly killed a single fly or eaten Itaru's baby sister…

"I think you two need to explain to me everything if I'm gonna help you. That's what you told me Kagome-san, right? That I might have to finish what this InuYasha guy started? Well then, what happened? I think I have a right to know."

Kagome stood and nodded. "Of course. Shippo-chan… I believe you're here for a dinner. Meet me upstairs in Itaru-kun's room after dinner; the story should probably last longer than that."

The soft muffled sound of footsteps made Kagome turn. A small toddler was rubbing her eyes as she gazed up at her. Turning to her brother, she mumbled in a soft voice that reminded Kagome so much of Ai, "Itaru-onii-chan? Who is she?"

Kagome knelt down again, falling down to eyelevel with the young girl. "I'm Kagome. You can call me Kagome-chan or Kagome-nee-chan."

The little girl who looked and sounded like Ai nodded and smiled toothily up at Kagome. Itaru coughed and stepped forward. "Kagome-san, this is Remi, my youngest sister. Shigeatsu-onii-san and Reika-chan, my brother and sister, should be-"

"Elder brother, Itaru," came a low voice as a young man slowly walked down the stairs. He gazed fixated at Kagome, who shifted slightly. He looked so much like Miroku but…

Somebody was suddenly gripping her hands and kissing her right on her vein. Blushing, she attempted to pull her hand out, but the boy held it firmly. He looked no older than seventeen…

His bright violet eyes rose to meet hers as he said in a silky smooth voice, "My, I doubt I have ever seen a more beautiful girl in the world… Would you mind terrible if we both skipped dinner and spent the night in my room… minus the-"

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENTAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Kagome screamed, her hand shooting out and slapping him right on the cheek, making him let go of her hands and real back, landing in a rather crumpled heap. His head lifted up and he managed an "I'll take that as a 'no', shall I?" before falling back.

Kagome fumed silently, the fires of hell rising behind her just for that one moment… Itaru, Remi, and Shippo moved away from her. The boy was to close to unconsciousness to realize that he was in mortal peril.

"THERE IS A YOUNG CHILD IN THE ROOM YOU PERVERT!!!!" Kagome screamed, her voice bouncing off the walls. Shippo smirked, remembering a time Kagome had sat InuYasha in a cave, and the reverberations had made him sink slowly into the ground, even when Kagome had stood there in pure and utter shock. He hadn't been able to move for quite a while…

He was brought out of his reminiscing by the appearance of a young girl, her long black hair hanging loosely about her shoulders. Her raven locks made her face seem even paler, but her sapphire eyes twinkled in merriment. She wore a nice baby blue dress, accenting her body, but not making her look slutty. Kagome shifted uncomfortably, her anger ebbing away for a moment before a hand 'accidentally' found its way to her rear end.

Going stiff, her eyes narrowed dangerously and found the boy again. Raising her fist, he hit him over the head and turned huffily back to Shippo. "Shippo-chan… Why the heck is Miroku-sama's reincarnation Itaru-kun's brother? AND WHY DIDN'T HIS DISGUSTING HABITS GO AWAY!? MIROKU-SAMA SAID THAT IT WAS A TRAIT HIS FATHER GAVE HIM!!!!!"

Shippo smirked. "Miroku's spirit must've retained certain… as you said quite loudly enough, habits. I suppose groping random woman was one of them… though Shigeatsu was doing just fine for a while… He hasn't had to go to the hospital in quite some time…"

Kagome snorted and crossed her arms. "Yeah… but at first I was thinking he was Sesshomaru-sama's reincar-"

Shippo was laughing suddenly and Kagome, Shigeatsu, Itaru, Remi, and the girl froze. "Uh… Kai-san…?" the girl said, scooting closer to him. Shippo was leaning against a pillar, still laughing so hard he was crying.

"Shi-Shi-Shigeatsu… Sessh-Sesshomaru's reincarnation! I can't wait to hear what he says about that!"

Kagome froze. What? "Shippo-chan…?" she said sweetly, moving closer. The laughing stopped. He knew what was coming.

"Oh crap. Well Kagome, it was nice seeing you and-"

She grabbed him by the back of his suit. "Shippo-chan… You aren't saying that Sesshomaru-sama is still… alive?"

He nodded.

"And no doubt he hasn't forgotten my… aiming-at-him-and-trying-to-kill-him problem, has he?"

He shook his head.

Kagome dropped him. "Well, I'm screwed."

"This Sesshomaru would highly doubt that, miko," came a cold voice from behind her. Could this day get any weirder? Why not just send the old gang back, along with Naraku and Kikyo, in puffy wine colored dresses to do the cancan why don'ch ya?

(A/N: Hm… InuYasha in a dress doing the cancan… -goes glassy eyed for a minute then falls back, covering eyes- MY EYES!!!!!!! IT BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURNS