Inspiration for this chapter… Linkin Park, Within Temptation, and Fall Out Boy. I don't own any of those. I own nothing. We are drawing near to a milestone in this story – rescue! Hoorah! I think. We'll just see. Half the fun for me is in not knowing what's going to happen – I write these notes before the actual chapter, usually. The other half is the reviews – so review! Just a little fact, I am suffering writer's block on this story. Heh.

Kagome stopped walking abruptly, her brown eyes, rimmed with red – the result of many a night spent crying herself to sleep – turned toward a pillar of smoke in the distance.

Sango, Miroku, and Shippo slowed to a stop beside her, Kirara pausing to blink up at the four with curious eyes.

Kagome shook her head. "Do you think that's the right one?" Her voice was hopeless enough to indicate that she wasn't so sure it was. Clearly this would not be the first village to have been visited by the group in vain.

"What are you talking about?" Sango murmured soothingly. "There's nothing there. Just darkening sky… I'm sorry, Kagome. Perhaps tomorrow…"

Kagome blinked, her expression one of misery. "You guys don't see it, do you? Kami," she sighed, sinking to the ground. "Now I'm seeing things."

Shippo hopped onto her shoulder, green eyes wide. "We can go look for the village if you'd like, Kagome. Maybe it's some sort of barrier… you could just be seeing beyond it because of your miko powers…"

Kagome shook her head. "It's been a year. Maybe we should face it… I'm just crazy for having these dreams, and InuYasha is probably not interested in ever seeing us again… actually… probably just me."

Miroku, who had been staring hard at the place where Kagome had seen smoke, turned his gaze toward the three knelt on the ground. "We can't lose hope. You know InuYasha would at least say goodbye at some point. Something must have happened to him. He can't hold a grudge against you for a whole year."

Kagome moaned and put her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking with little sobs. "That makes it worse… because he could be dying, he could be suffering, and what are we doing to help him?! Nothing! We can't find him!"

"That settles it, then," Miroku said softly, helping both girls up. Shippo clung tightly to Kagome's shoulder as she swayed unsteadily on her feet.

"Let's go check it out, Kagome. Lead the way," Sango said, and after a beat, continued, "Would it be better if we rode Kirara?"

Kagome blinked back tears. The reason they never rode Kirara anymore was because to the young priestess, it was a betrayal to InuYasha, who had always carried her everywhere in the past.

In the past… what did she have to do to make it the present once more?

"Yeah… I guess it would."

Very short and with different atomosphere than past chapters... but I've had a lot of stuff to do lately! Sorry. So, review! Soon, I think, should be reunion!