Author's Note: Yes, that IS chapter 35 AND 36 in this. Spoiling you all with chapters because why would I not when I vanished? Enjoy my dears!

Chapter 35:

I woke to silence. I sat up and looked around. Sesshomaru had moved closer to me at some point and was all but on top of me. He looked asleep. The children looked asleep, and so did Kagome. I realized it was only just becoming morning and sat up with a yawn. I went to go to the bathroom and came back to everyone still asleep. I grabbed a stick and started writing in the dirt with it.

"So, you can write besides the answer to a code," Sesshomaru said, nearly making me jump out of my skin. "It is a little strange but understandable at the very least." I scowled at him for making me jump. "Why are you writing on the ground?"

"Can't a girl pour her thoughts to something without having it talk back to her or judge her for it?"

"Yes, but it isn't nearly as effective as telling someone else."

I sighed. "Sometimes, girls don't want to tell someone else if they are embarrassed. And sometimes, it is better to write it all out and think before you bother someone else with just the thinking part and boring them. It helps you sound smarter when you get around to talking to someone else."

"You wouldn't bore me with your thinking patterns. I might understand you better."

I tossed the stick at Sesshomaru, and he caught it. "Yes, but I still don't want to talk to you about it."

"Why?"

"You are being stupid." I stood and checked on Kagome. Anthony was getting up and looking at us funny.

"Mama, is he upsetting you again?"

"A bit, but I'm fine."

Anthony growled something out at Sesshomaru, and Sesshomaru all be snarled something back. Anthony winced. I took my shoe off and tossed it at Sesshomaru. "What was that for Usagi?"

"For being a jerk to a kid. He asked me if you were upsetting me, and I told him a bit. He probably just told you off for upsetting me, and you didn't like that and snapped at him for it. Go fill the water skins or something else." Sesshomaru glared at me but stood and grabbed an armload of skins and walked off.

"What did you say to him?"

"What did he say to you?"

Anthony toed the ground and came and sat in my lap. "He was kind of angry and cursed at me a bit."

"Then I'm glad I told him off and made him do a chore," I told the small boy with a tapped finger to his nose. He smiled at me then looked at the others. "Let them sleep. I'm not fully awake either yet."

Anthony leaned against me with a yawn. Sesshomaru came back with the waterskins, grabbed the pot and the rest of the waterskins, and left again. When he came back again, Maria was waking up. She thanked him, more than he would get for me, and started making a small stew with what we had left. I gave Anthony a peck on the cheek, then put him on the ground and stood up.

"Where are you going?"

"To get food. Don't worry; I won't go after big game. Just berries and whatever I can find close."

"We did that already."

"Then I guess I'm getting a boar!"

"Can you even catch one?"

"I guess we will find out?"

He sighed. "I'll come with you. We can't get into too much trouble getting one boar." I smiled with a nod, and we walked almost out of hearing distance when Sesshomaru grabbed my arm.

"Where are you going?"

"What do you care? I have Anthony with me."

"A child is not going to be able to protect you from a demon attack."

I took the sword from his belt. "You are a big scary demon and don't need a sword. We are fine now. Go back to the others."

"A sword which you have little skill wielding as a sword and more as a long knife is going to save you?"

"Kagome and the rest of the children have no protection without you. I have a chance. We get into trouble I'll scream very loudly. Either way, I'll be alone since Kagome has no bow to protect us with, and I have the best chance at keeping anyone alive. We can't all go."

"Hnn," he said, which was no answer at all.

I held my hand out for Anthony, and he took it, and we walked on. This time, Sesshomaru let us.

Chapter 36:

An hour and a half later, Anthony was hungry and had told me we failed about three dozen times. I told him to stay very quiet, but he gave a rather loud sigh. "Anthony, five more minutes, and I'll quit if I get nothing."

"What are you going to get in five minutes?"

"Have faith. And stay there."

He threw a why at me, but I crawled off. Not a great distance, but the food I had left seemed to have done the trick. I snapped the cord holding the vine, and not only one, but two deer were captured. I wasn't planning on that. I ran out and stabbed each through the heart, a large buck, and a smaller doe before I realized that now I had no way to carry two deer twice my weight each back.

"Anthony!" I called, not too loudly.

"How the heck did you manage that?"

"Skill and patience. Do you have any idea how to get them back?"

"You killed two giant deer without any thought how to get them back?"

"Not my brightest moment?" I paused. "Well, we are going to make him useful. He carried three bears back all at once; two deer should be no problem. Can you yell "Sesshomaru, help" as loud and panicked sounding you can at the same time as me?" He nodded, and we both took a deep breath and shouted. It took less than forty-five seconds for Sesshomaru to show up disheveled. "I can't carry or drag both back. Can you help? I don't want to leave Kagome alone too long, either."

He stared at me, then slowly looked over the deer, he knelt and picked up each one and threw them over his shoulders. "Both were clean kills. Impressive. And you caught two."

"Yes, well, get those to Maria, and we will be back as soon as we can. Smaller legs and all." He nodded and was gone. "How was that?" I asked Anthony.

"That was cool!" I wanted to chuckle that Anthony was picking up futuristic lingo.

"Yep, now let's get back. After making him do chores and scaring him like that, I'm ready to forgive him for what he said if you are." I held out my hand, and Anthony took it.

He swung my hand for several minutes before turning to look at me. "How can you hold a note so long?"

I guessed this would come up at some point. I doubted anyone heard of my trick, though. About now, it would only exist in Africa. "Well, it is going to sound silly, but I circle breathe."

"Circle breathe?"

"Yes, and it is a rather hard trick to learn. It makes it so I can't hold my breath very long underwater for some reason, not that I was ever very good at it to begin with. But what I do, is I can breathe in at the same time as breathing out. This means I never need to take a breath to sing a note, so I can hold it as long as I want."

"How do you even do it? Isn't that impossible?"

I shrugged. "I learned it and how to do it from a teacher. I never get winded that way. I can run until my legs hurt, but I won't be out of breath if I circle breathe. It is rather uncomfortable to do without singing, though."

"So, if you started a note now, you could hold it all the way back to camp?"

I opened my mouth and started a clear C note and held it swinging Anthony's hand as we walked back to camp. Sesshomaru had a raised eyebrow as we walked back into the clearing. Anthony was laughing. I kept it going, just to mess with Sesshomaru.

"Usagi, how long are you going to show off?" Kagome asked me. I shrugged in the way of answer.

"Isn't this cool? She's been doing it for over twenty minutes!" Anthony informed his brothers and sisters.

"Impossible. Not even a demon can hold a note that long!" Maria said with a laugh.

"You'll see Maria! Mama, can you keep holding it until Maria gets to eat her words?" I ruffled Anthony's hair and sat down and leaned back onto my palms and kept going.

After about five minutes, Sesshomaru winced. "What are you doing? How can you hold a note that long?" I kept going for another three minutes. "This is impossible." He stood and walked over to me and put his ear to my face. It was uncomfortable with how close he was, but I let him do it. "Explain."

I sighed but stopped singing. "What do you want to know?"

"Where in your bloodline is there demon? Are you quarter? Eighth? Less?"

I rubbed my temples. I was getting a major headache. "Are we doing this again?"

"Little one, does your head hurt still?" I reached out and flicked Kenji's forehead. "Alright, I get it. It shouldn't hurt though." He has said the last part only loud enough for me to assume that was what he said. I ignored it, guessing that it might have to do with having been dehydrated from not drinking for several hours.

"Good, because my head kills, and I don't think that I can run another round of "are you a demon?""

Kenji looked at me. "You don't know if you are a demon or not?"

I glared at Kenji. "I thought we established I'm not."

Kenji shrugged. Sesshomaru's nose was at my hair again. I was done. I shoved Sesshomaru off with a scream, one that probably hurt his ears by the way he winced. I stood up and stormed out of the clearing.

I was mad. I couldn't remember my parents, but I remember telling Sesshomaru a bit about them just days ago. I talked to Kenji about things I couldn't remember knowing. I couldn't remember anything from before a certain point. I don't remember Kagome brushing my hair as a kid, and that keyed me off that something happened to my head. The earliest memory I had was of sitting with Souta on a swing crying, but not why I was crying. But I was old, too old to not remember anything from before that. It just was gone. If I had been with Kagome since I was a kid, then why did Inuyasha not remember me when I was falling through the well this time with Kagome? He had asked what sister. Something had happened, and no one was saying anything. Any time I tried to think about it, my headache got worse. No, something had happened beyond dehydration. Everything felt off and wrong. I felt wrong. This was not a good thing in the least.

I was far away, but not too far I couldn't get help when I stopped. I sat hard on the ground. Nothing was making sense. Maybe my brain had shut down. Maybe I completely lost it with an adventure that wasn't fun anymore. It never was fun, not after those clawed fingers went into my body. I pulled my knees to my chest and dropped my forehead on my knees. How had Kagome not broken all those years ago? I felt like I was now missing a piece of me I couldn't get back and I was so hurt by everything. I wanted to go home so badly.

I felt Kagome's hand on my shoulder, and then she sat down and pressed her back against mine. She stayed like that for a long time. "Don't break," she whispered softly. "That's what I had to tell myself, all the time. I woke up, and it was my first thought for so long. Every brush with death, I felt myself crack. I still feel it here, but it is worse than it ever was then. I escaped home so many times over stupid things because everyone kept me together, and when we fought it felt like I was crumbling. But my friends would pull me back together. We had a duty. Duty sucks. But we all were a team. We all were what supported each other. I don't have that now, and I'm scared. I'm hardly holding it together. But I know more about this time, well, a bit more into the future, but I know more, and it isn't as bad for me as it must be for you."

"This is hell. I want to go home," I whispered. I felt Kagome sigh more than I heard it. "I know, Kenji says that I have to free the souls, but I thought I was going to die here. And I don't even remember how I got hurt in the first place. I remember how I hid it, but I don't remember how I got it or when. If I had been poisoned when around you, it never would have gotten that far. I know things are off. I'm not stupid, Kagome." I gripped a fistful of my hair at the roots and gave a light tug.

Kagome turned and hugged me. "You are fine. We'll get through this, find someone else to carry that thing, and go home. That stupid kami can't be that heartless. You aren't prepared for this. If he is insistent, we can go home and train you a bit before we come back. Get supplies like tampons and soaps and really yummy snacks for the road, and a few packs of crayons and coloring books for the kids."

I pulled away from Kagome and stood on shaking legs. "Kagome, you can't think I'll be able to go for more than a tiny bit of time, and everyone be fine with it. I have those kids who are attached to me, and I don't know the first thing about finding someone to take them in. I doubt Sesshomaru would be able to take them in, and even if he tried, no one mentions that Sesshomaru has adopted kids. He only will have Rin as far as we know, at least." I leaned against a tree and knocked my head into it once. "Can you temple-rub me? My head kills."

Kagome stood and put her forehead against mine and started to rub my temples. "Well, maybe it doesn't have to be long-term that we train you. Maybe we can convince Kenji that we have to go home from time to time to restock on supplies. We are going to need a ton with so many kids if we can't find a home for them. I don't think Sesshomaru has the money right now to support all of us very long, and we can't just live off of berries and meat from kills. We will need veggies and rice and all kinds of other things. Inus need us clean, so for that, we will need a ton of soap and hair products too. Kenji will let us. He has to, right?"

I nodded as she rubbed my temples. "Let's ask when he comes out of hiding again."

Author's Note: That's it for tonight. I have not really slept in almost 48 hours, so I need to sleep before I pass out. Thanks Wolfie for working so hard the last 24 hours to get all these out with me!