You're just the same thing that I knew

Right before the time when I was running from you

It was one thing to ride the bus and another thing to be the guy licking the windows. The woman staring at him was definitely one step away from licking windows. Her hair was a hot mess. Her clothes all sorts of wrinkled. And the smell? Inuyasha when he first came through the well would give this woman a run for her money.

"How did you make it past the barrier?" Kikyo asked softly and Jiro glanced at the newcomer before turning his attention back to the noodles.

"What barri...oh screw this. Know what? I typed 'bitch' into my GPS and it led me here," Jiro snapped impulsively as he took a step backwards and whacked the everloving daylights out of a nearby soul collector making it burst into sparkly dust, "You stay back. I'm warning you."

"Consider me warned," Kikyo hummed as she began to approach and Jiro's eyes widened in panic.

"I said stay back!" Jiro hissed before jumping when blue flames literally erupted from his feet and flew across the ground in all sorts of directions. Yeah...so a terrible death by cancer was probably back on the table. Random combustion wasn't...well, that wasn't great. Definitely radioactive because those weird pyrotechnics definitely came from him. How he wasn't burned he didn't know. His feet were on freaking fire. God, how was he even supposed to go to school now? Just flames and lights flying up everywhere. The government was totally going to abduct him like something out of the x-files. This was...

"You look just as I imagined. Our children always favored him," Kikyo breathed as she gave him the creepiest smile Jiro had ever seen on anyone's face and it brought his own musings to a screeching halt. The boy blinked rapidly as his mouth fell partially open in confusion.

"Okay then," Jiro replied awkwardly as he hit one of the soul collectors that had tried to rush him when she spoke with all his might and watched with morbid satisfaction when it too dissolved, "That was gross. Now if you'll just hand over Kagome, we can call it a day."

"You are here for the girl?" Kikyo asked indifferently as she continued to smile that disturbing smile.

"Uh yeah," Jiro snorted as he wearily watched the strange serpent things slowly retreat, "Not like I'm here for no reason."

"What is your name?" Kikyo inquired calmly, still maintaining her distance but obviously having no intention of handing over the girl.

"Does that really matter?" Jiro countered as he held his stick up and glared, "Hand over Kagome and maybe I'll tell you."

"Answer my questions and perhaps I'll 'hand over' the girl as you put it," Kikyo countered as she arched a graceful brow.

"Yeah I'm not stupid," Jiro chuckled darkly as he narrowed his brown eyes, "You wanna fight? Come at me then. I'm armed."

"Spiritual powers will have no effect on me," Kikyo hummed appreciatively, "Although I must say I am impressed. For someone untrained, you are controlling your power rather well."

Was she...was that supposed to be a compliment? It would explain the blue sparkly shit. Huh. Well what do you know? Maybe he wasn't going to get cancer after all.

"I have a proposition," the crazy lady continued as her creepy smile turned into something more sadistic and somehow *more* unsettling, "Answer my questions. Join me and I shall train you. In return, I will release the girl."

"Okay, okay, wait," Jiro scoffed as he shook his head, "You want me to go with you. And this is after you like pretty much tortured both that Inuyasha guy and Kagome. Why would I do that? I'm not stupid."

"I have no intention of harming you," Kikyo laughed softly and Jiro gave her a patient, skeptical look, "I understand your misgivings. I have no qualm with you. However, I imagine you may have some qualms with them."

"I don't get it," Jiro admitted bluntly as he rolled his eyes and prepared to swing if need be, "And I doubt it. I literally just met them."

"That is entirely the point," Kikyo hummed as a wicked smile bloomed on her face, "You have no idea who you are, do you? What your presence here means?"

"It means I'm here to kick your ass," Jiro snorted, "Just hand over Kagome."

"Answer my questions first," Kikyo propositioned as her smile faded into something almost pleasant, "I assure you. I mean you no harm."

Jiro didn't believe a word coming out of the woman's mouth but an erratic pulse at his back made him realize something big was coming their way. He had a feeling he knew what that big thing was. Inuyasha was coming. He just needed to buy some time.

"Fine, ask away," Jiro huffed exasperatedly as he gripped his stick so tightly his knuckles turned white.

"What is your name?" Kikyo began as she pursed her lips.

"Jiro. Next."

"Your name means second son does it not?"

"Obviously."

"Do you have any siblings?"

"A sister."

"Her name."

"Izzy. Okay, well Izayoi. But like no one calls her that."

Jiro cringed. Why the hell did he feel the need to explain? He was always a nervous talker in a pinch. Short answers. He needed to keep his answers short.

"No brothers?"

"No."

"So why second son?"

"Maybe they just liked how it sounded."

"What were your parent's names?"

"Amber and Takai."

"Amber?"

"Yes."

"What manner of name is Amber?"

"It's American. You know, an, uh, English name."

"What is American?"

"Oh my...its, uh, the United States...um, America is a country. I mean, I guess it makes sense you wouldn't know," Jiro mumbled more to himself than to her as he rolled his eyes, "They met there. Moved to Japan."

"That is quite a feat for a human."

"Not really."

"Who were your father's parents?"

"Never met them. Don't know."

"You don't know their names?"

"No."

"Your mother's parents then?"

Jiro sighed heavily as he prayed for the pulse against his back to hurry the hell up and move already.

"Mary and Kai."

"Strange names."

"Stranger things have happened."

"Indeed. So they were from here?"

"He was. His family isn't our biggest fan."

"Why is that?"

"Didn't like my dad."

"But you know nothing of your father's family?"

"Nope."

"Why would that be?"

"Dad never said."

"Did your father look like you?"

"Yes."

"Interesting."

"Okay, seriously, what's with the twenty questions?" Jiro sighed heavily as he gave the crazy woman a withering glare, "Is there a point to this?"

"I believe you are the grandson of this girl and Inuyasha," Kikyo opined thoughtfully as her eyes held a wicked tint, "I believe your presence here..."

"Well if that's true, you're screwed aren't you?" Jiro snorted as he rolled his eyes and gave her a satisfied smirk, "It means you lose dumbass."

He literally didn't believe a single word coming out of this chick's mouth. First of all, that was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard in his life. Right up there with sticking a fork in an outlet. Why would she ever expect that to work? Like he was going to gasp in some understanding and join this woman straight out of zombie horror movies because of it? Even if it was true, why would he do that? Second, she was nuts. Her sanity was clearly one fry short of a happy meal. She was cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Her cord didn't quite reach the outlet. The wheel was spinning but the hamster was dead.

"Perhaps," Kikyo hummed as she turned and headed back towards the comatose Kagome, "We shall see."

~o~o~o~o~o~

"I don't know. Use your wind tunnel on it. Use a sutra! I don't care," Inuyasha hissed before a crazed laugh escaped him, "My sword doesn't work. It won't let me in which means she's going to probably kill Kagome and that can't happen! I don't know what else we're supposed to do here!"

"You must stay calm," Miroku tried to soothe despite his own frazzled nerves, "I believe Kagome-sama is safe. I can feel her aura projecting a barrier within this one."

"She can't make barriers yet. She told me," Inuyasha snarled as he began hacking haphazardly at the stupid invisible bubble with the barrier breaking attack.

"Then that would explain why the aura surrounding the barrier feels somewhat distinctive," Miroku hummed as he narrowed his eyes and focused, "It would feel unfamiliar as I have not felt it before."

"Then good for her. Still need to get her outta there!" Inuyasha bellowed before he got blown back after he tried to straight up stab the barrier.

"Inuyasha!" Sango called out as she ran to his aide before stopping when he didn't waste a second before bouncing back and rushing the barrier again.

"I can't lose her!" Inuyasha breathed as the monk and slayer watched him seemingly lose him mind in his attempts to break in, "I can't..."

"Well, in order for me to attempt to purify it, you need to stand a safe distance away," Miroku finally soothed as he approached his friend and placed a hand firmly on his shoulder, "Please stand over by Sango. Let me do what I do best."

~o~o~o~o~o~

An ebony haired woman stormed up the shrine steps - her hair a mess and her scrubs still on. This was the last straw. After being explicitly grounded, he hadn't come home after school. He hadn't even called and his phone was going straight to voicemail. There was only two places he could be and he wasn't at the hospital. Her eyes honed in on an old man sweeping in the middle of the shrine grounds and with a angry scowl, she stormed over to the poor, unsuspecting elder.

"You," she called out as she continued storming across the cold tile before waiting until he looked up, "Where is he?"

The old man simply stared at her. Well more like gaped openly as he furrowed his brow and cocked his head to the side.

"Did you hear me?!" the sister damn near screamed, "Where is he?"

If anything Gramps' eyes looked watery as he continued to search the angry woman's face. A mixture of longing and confusion dancing behind his eyes. It was strange. So strange.

"Are you...are you by any chance related to...to the Horikitas? To a Hana? Or a Mei? They would have been around my..."

"What the hell?! No!" the woman cut him off impatiently, "Now where is Jiro!?"

The confused expression faded into annoyance.

"I do not know who Jiro is," Gramps huffed as he glared at the woman whose appearance was almost an exact copy of his late wife in her youth. It was uncanny and disturbing, "Either way, no one is here right now except my daughter in law. You must be mistaken."

"Fine," the woman snorted suspiciously, "Then you won't mind if I wait here."

"Be my guest," Gramps huffed as he set his jaw and held himself a little taller, "I do not like the implication that I am lying to you. Forgive me if I don't invite you into my home."

With that he turned away, broom in hand, and stormed back towards the house. The woman, meanwhile, gave the old man's back a sour look before marching over to a bench and folding her arms across her chest.