So, I made an AO3 account because I originally wanted to just write InuHime. I don't regret writing SasuHina, but that pair really took over my account. So, anyway, I'm gonna move my InuHime fics over there. All the fics on this account will stay here, and I'll keep updating this fic here as well, but you'll see it on AO3 soon.

Which means I'll be editing 30 chapters as I go . . . yay . . . Writer name is the same, but it's "_" instead of a ".".

Enjoy!

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Auburn Strands and Red Threads #30

Ichigo hated to admit it, but having a cellphone was . . . nice.

Only because it was convenient.

He had only had the phone for two days, but it wasn't hard for him to figure out how to work it. He had already gotten the numbers of all his friends—Keigo and Mizuiro included—as well as adding other contact info they may have, such as email and student ID. It was an odd concept that he could now email his friends or even call them without having to get out of bed.

Without having to be in any fixed location, really.

He hadn't had a need to charge it, either, and honestly didn't know how to if he needed to. He didn't see any spot on the device that would connect to anything he knew to be a charger, and that would have to be something he asked about when they all met up at Kisuke's again.

There was also a way he could set up reminders for things that he needed to do, and having an alarm for more than just sleeping was becoming an important staple in his life. His sisters were immediately envious when they saw that he had a cellphone and demanded their father buy them one, too. This sent Isshin into an envious stupor because not even he had a cellphone, and he demanded to know how Ichigo got one. His son clearly did not have a job, and the phone was clearly a top of the line model from some other country.

Ichigo lied and said Uryuu had bought too many phones and gifted them to both him and the rest of their friend group.

Yuzu congratulated Ichigo and vowed to have such generous friends one day.

Karin applauded Ichigo, vowing to have friends just as reckless with their money one day.

Isshin plastered on a smile, but he wondered if these kids were robbing banks. How does one accidentally order multiple phones and not return them? Then again, this was Ishida money . . .

Damn that Ryūken and his riches.

Ichigo was glad the response placated his family enough that he could continue his new indulgence without guilt.

And, again, it's only been two days.

Out of all the benefits the phone provided, there was just one function he was not enjoying so well. It was easy to find the function that could help him track his friends—it was labeled My Friends, after all—and he honestly only looked at it when he first got the phone. He opened it when they were still in Kisuke's living room, and he kept it open just to truly see if it worked. The screen was blue, and the white dots symbolized his friends with their initials hovering over their respective dot. Ichigo had lifted his eyes to look at his friends and then the dots to see if the positions were right, and they absolutely were.

Everyone got home safe that night.

The problem was the little yellow icon with the white lettering provided far too much invasion of privacy, even if Ichigo genuinely just wanted to know that his friends were safe at any given moment. He would limit himself to emergencies only because having that kind of access to people's lives was not good for him—or anyone. Life was becoming a bit . . . ridiculous and highly dangerous, and the urge to keep everyone safe was driving him crazy.

Truth be told, he had been questioning who he should be putting his trust into since that day Kisuke sent him to retrieve Orihime. Ichigo had been under the assumption Captain Yamamoto was targeting Orihime for no reason, but then the old man told him it's Kisuke that isn't to be trusted, and it was Kisuke's fault if Orihime was put into any danger. Ichigo couldn't wrap his mind around how Kisuke in the present could be impacting anything in the past. That was a big reason why Ichigo wasn't sure he could trust Yamamoto because nothing he said really made sense, but it was an explanation to the off feeling Ichigo was having regarding Kisuke and Orihime.

If the Captain of the Soul Society is saying it's bad to have Kisuke around Orihime, how could Ichigo not feel vindicated? And he couldn't exactly doubt the man too much because demons definitely were . . . a factor now. Orihime had been attacked, and now Chad has been attacked, too. He couldn't sense these things, and his friends were getting very badly injured by them. How could he not worry?

Well, he didn't have to worry about Uryuu yet. The main thing Uryuu had issue with was believing in concepts he couldn't rationalize, but luckily he could be a believer in anything he could verify with his own eyes.

Ichigo also didn't have to worry about Rukia unless she went to the Soul Society or the Soul Society came to her, so that was one stress factor he didn't worry about quite as often. If she couldn't detect demons, she could definitely defend herself. However . . . he still did not forgive her for letting the Inuyasha guy into his home without asking him first. He knew if he admitted to himself that he whole-heartedly trusted Rukia then he also had to trust her judgement, but that situation could have been disastrous if she had been wrong.

For fuck's sake, his family lives here and a demon was in his home, and he didn't even know until Rukia said something.

Ichigo took a deep breath, turning over in his bed. He had to be mindful of the facts.

Inuyasha . . . was not a threat. Everyone was pretty welcoming of the new face, so Ichigo knew he had to stop being so stubborn when it came to the demon.

Half demon.

Maybe Ichigo was clashing with Inuyasha's human side because Ichigo seemed to get along with non-humans just fine.

In truth, it was just the unknown that Inuyasha represented that made Ichigo defensive. The Soul Society was one thing because that was still in the present, but Feudal Japan . . . He hoped he wasn't being dramatic, but there couldn't have been anything good with interacting with the past or the past interacting with the present. Ichigo felt as though if this kept happening, something . . . not good would happen. He wished he could put an image to what 'not good' looked like or when it would finally happen. For all he knew, Inuyasha was the not good simply because he was visiting the present, and maybe it would unintentionally start a domino effect of bad situations. He liked to think that was a big reason he couldn't fully accept Inuyasha.

Then again . . .

Ichigo also had to admit he didn't know Inuyasha was from the past when all the head-butting started. Yeah, he thought Inuyasha was an enemy when they fought in the Soul Society, but he knew soon after that Inuyasha was not a threat.

So . . .

Ichigo mentally scoffed to himself. Was he envious or something? Of some guy—some creature—he really didn't know all because this new face was hanging around one of his friends?

Ichigo thought for a moment, looking out his bedroom window. He could barely see the speck of the stars from this position—there was a streetlamp close by. He thought about all the conflicting emotions he's had these past few weeks. Why did things change drastically for him once Inuyasha became a factor? Was Ichigo envious Inuyasha was hanging out with Orihime? Not really that but . . .

For someone who is new, the two of them seem to have gotten very close. Their friendship felt different than the friendships Orihime had with the rest of . . .

Well . . .

Her friendship with Inuyasha felt different than her friendship with Ichigo.

Ichigo himself only based that on what he saw, which wasn't often that he saw them together, and yet . . . they were just really close. Why did Ichigo want that kind of friendship with her? Why, deep down, did he think the two of them weren't just friends?

Why would he be envious of that?

Ichigo closed his eyes, scratching his head.

What was he even thinking about? He needed to go to sleep because today had been a long one.

He looked over at his closet, making sure the door was closed all the way. He reached for the phone under his bed and flipped it open. For the sake of going to bed soon, he went to the My Friends function and clicked on Orihime's name. The simple grid map showed her dot scrolling past street names, causing a mild strobing effect.

Ichigo stared at his phone, feeling the crease between his brows grow. He sat up, throwing his legs over the bed, and walked to his closet, all while looking at his phone. He tapped lightly but urgently on the door.

"Rukia," he whispered. "Wake up."

Rukia mumbled. She slid the door open, eyes hazy.

"Let me see your phone."

"What?" Rukia squinted as she blinked at him. "Why?"

"Orihime might be in trouble."

"What?" Rukia started to get up. "What do you mean?"

Ichigo showed Rukia his phone. Rukia stared, the crease between her brows becoming more prominent.

Sora Inoue was in a room with a wall full of twenty 40-inch screens. Left and right of the monitor, there were four large, sleek machines that hummed dully as a white noise that massaged his subconscious mind. The monitors had wires and cables that connected them to the machines. The wall opposite the monitors was the door to enter and exit the room, and on one side of the room was a pullout sofa, and on the other side was an assortment of lab equipment and machine parts. In the middle of the room stood a large rolling working table that preoccupied Sora's attention.

The interesting yet maddening yet beneficial aspect of having a consciousness while the surrounding universe resets is that one finds a lot of time on their hands. He began to suspect he only aged one year each time a reset happen, and seeing how they would stay at least a decade at a time in a new reset . . . time could drag on. Kisuke spent most of his days inventing stuff, so Sora decided to give it a try after the second time he reset with Kisuke. It was better than sitting around and letting his thoughts get the best of him, especially the guilty ones.

Sora didn't like to think about how he first met Kisuke. In truth, Sora used to have a plethora of mixed feelings about how he met Kisuke when the years began to spin on and on.

This Sora Inoue would have no doubt lived a normal life had he not met Kisuke . . .

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At the age of ten, Sora had run away from home to get away from his parents. A distant aunt was scheduled to fly back to America where she had recently moved. His Aunt Iris had stopped by to visit, and his parents put on a sub-par act to convince her nothing was amiss in the home. When it came time for her to leave, Sora knew he had to as well. He recognized the name of the hotel she had been staying at, and he left without even locking the door behind him after his parents had passed out. His aunt had looked so apologetic and heartbroken when she exited the next morning and discovered Sora had slept outside the building all night because he didn't know how to find her, and he didn't have the courage to go inside and ask. Sora didn't even have to beg her to take him with her.

They just left.

For the next eight years, he had lived a surreal life of comfort, safety, and growth with his Aunt Iris. She had been a kind woman in her sixties that looked far younger. She was eccentric yet practical, and she had paid for him to go to a very prestigious private school in America. She had faint smile lines around her mouth, and she cut her long, wavy reddish brown hair shortly after they had arrived to the new country.

Sora had been surrounded by family he didn't know he had and made many friends. He had been very involved in his school whether it be academics, sports, or politics. He had truly had a good life surrounded with love and encouragement.

Then, when Sora was eighteen, he went back to Japan to study abroad. He and three of his close friends had gotten accepted into the program, and the school he would be attending would be far, far away from his original home of Karakura.

So, naturally, one weekend he took a train ride back to his old side of town.

It was late afternoon when he arrived at the Karakura Old Town Station, and he had only intended to spend few hours, looking at what's changed before he eventually found the courage to walk near his old home.

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Present-day Sora froze at the rolling table, shutting his eyes and slowly doubling over as the memories came back to him.

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He remembered it was late when he finally approached his old home. He had been confused when he noticed a good portion of the neighborhood where he used to live appeared as though it had been roped off. The ropes hung loosely from buildings, either cut or worn with time. When he approached his old home, he saw that it had police tape everywhere—loose and littering the ground and home itself. There was a man slumped against the door with a small dark animal curled at his side.

Sora didn't know why he himself began to walk towards the scene. The sight of the house scared him more than the man did. It was as he took his third tentative step that Sora realized there were newspapers littered on the ground as well. Sora picked up one of the newspapers, the headline was circled in red: LOCAL COUPLE MURDERS 3-YEAR OLD DAUGHTER

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Sora stopped thinking about the past. He never knew he had a sister back then.

But that's the past.

All the past.

Orihime was here now, and he was a better brother. He had spent lifetimes finding the sister he never met, and this time he had actually been able to meet her instead of watching from afar.

He talked to her!

He had to watch lifetimes where she grew up alone or got bullied or watched him die over and over and over again, and this was finally the lifetime where they could meet without either of them dying. Well, the Sora of this reset died, but Orihime would most likely make it to her sixteenth birthday without any major issue.

Sora took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves.

He was tired of thinking about the past. By now, he was being subjected to false memories because his mind was filling in the blanks. He didn't get to see every aspect of her life, so a lot he had to come up with for himself. How she made friends, how she got through the tough times, the first time she tried her favorite foods, all of that was his own imagination, and he was tired of coming up with false narratives for her life. He wanted the actual narrative.

He had to see it all.

Which brought him back to why having so much time was a good thing for him. It was hard to hang around a guy like Kisuke and not learn a thing or two about science and what can and cannot be done in reality. So that got Sora thinking: If Kisuke can reset the universe, why can't Sora see the past?

Why can't Sora, say, project all the lifetimes Orihime had lived to find out why Orihime kept dying? Why couldn't he project all the lifetimes Soras like him lived to see why the Inoue siblings couldn't both be alive at the same time until old age?

Why did one of them always die?

Didn't they deserve to be in each other's lives? Didn't they deserve to be part of their sibling's life as they each grew and made friends and found love and got heartbroken and truly just lived like anyone else was able to? If they had to have such crappy parents in every reset, why couldn't they live a full life as happy siblings just once?

And where the hell did Inuyasha come from?

Sora really wanted the answers to all of this.

With gloves, Sora separated the strands of auburn and silver hair into two separated, elongated piles until each looked like a lock of hair. He had been collecting Orihime's hair whenever he could after he read a book that hair held sources of life. It was a book full of myths, but it was a fairly innocuous way to conduct his experiments, in his humble opinion. It was a fortuitous moment that he was asked to help bring the Inuyasha fellow from the Soul Society to Kisuke's house. He also hated to admit that it was probably a good thing Kisuke made it so Orihime wasn't awake when he saw her because she would have most certainly thought him strange for tugging on her hair with any pressure.

With Inuyasha it was habit. His hair was just there on his red clothing, and it was an interesting color. If Inuyasha hadn't been linked to his sister in that moment, Sora still would have collected as much of the boy's hair as he could. The more experiments the better.

Truth be told, if Sora had one flaw, it's that he collected other people's hair out of habit now. Kisuke, Yoruichi, Tessai, Jinta, Ururu, and really anyone who he had access to and they left their hair behind in some way.

Well, except Kisuke. Sometimes Sora would just yank the hair directly from the source because Kisuke was monopolizing Orihime and wouldn't admit it. Sora wanted to see why Kisuke got so invested with them in the first place.

After a few minutes, Sora pulled out his phone from his pocket to check the time but saw that there was a flashing yellow dot in the top right corner of his phone. Confused, Sora went to the My Friends function and was more confused to see the dot by Orihime's name. He clicked on her name, and his eyes flew wide open. Sora ran out the room and made a right down the hall to a closet door. Sora quickly checked to make sure the dial was set properly then burst through the door, crossed Kisuke's living room, and ran up the stairs to burst through Kisuke's bedroom door.

Both Kisuke and Yoruichi awoke with a start, both in a minimal state of dress and disoriented with the awakening, and immediately sat up in bed just as Sora reached them, phone outstretched to them both.

"What the fuck is happening?!" Sora yelled.

Kisuke and Yoruichi asked nonsensical questions as they were forced to wake up further.

"It's Orihime," Sora elaborated.

The two froze, staring at the phone, unaware that Kisuke's own phone had a message waiting to be read.

Orihime sat on her knees extremely rigid, so much so that her body ached, and she felt as though she was putting herself through excruciating torture. She stared forward through the transparent, shimmering pink dome as she zoomed through the night sky.

Don't be scared, don't be scared, don't be scared, don't be scared, she told herself, but she really wanted to believe the words to her core.

"Toughen up."

Orihime's eyes shot to her shoulder where Tsubaki sat with his legs and arms crossed. Her eyes almost immediately wandered to the scenery—the vast expanse of sky and stars with the tops of buildings and trees below her. Her pounding heart felt as though the contents evaporated and nothing but cold fear was left in its place. Though she knew her surroundings, she couldn't see anything with clarity because they were moving through the air at an impossible speed. Everything was a blur in her eyes, and she knew had it not been for Baigon and Hinagiku making this dome, she would have flown off a while ago. She swallowed hard as she looked forward once more, intentionally keeping her eyes off the large creature she was traveling on.

Not like it worked.

The creature's skin felt lumpy yet malleable, and she could feel the muscles of it move whenever it breathed out a particularly hard burst of air or when it flexed and rolled as if it were very aware of the spot she was sitting on.

Tsubaki groaned, annoyed. "Did you press send?"

Orihime looked down at her hands, one hand gripping the other as it gripped her phone. She loosened her hold, the phone leaving imprints in her palms, and looked at the unfinished message on her phone screen.

I went to see Inuyasha. I'll be back soon.

She read the message once more, typing the words 'Love you' before sending the message to Kisuke. She hoped he didn't feel the urgency in the last two words like she did when she realized the importance of sending it.

Orihime was going . . . far away with just her newfound abilities to protect her, and she had no way to warn her friends ahead of time. Well, she knew that wasn't entirely true . . . She could have called an emergency meeting or even just called her friends on their cellphones or maybe even just wait until the morning before taking any kind of action, but . . .

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"Inuyasha might need your help right now."

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Trying to convince herself of things was difficult tonight.

Of course she was being risky, but the last time Inuyasha went off to fight demons, he showed up half dead on her doorstep. If her fairies were telling her he's in trouble, and he wasn't even in the same time period as her . . .

How bad was it?

Orihime put her phone in her pocket. She was able to change into a pair of sweatpants and a fitted T-shirt before leaving Kisuke's house. She remembered the tall grass that was in the Feudal Era, and she definitely wanted to protect her legs this time. As for the fitted T-shirt, Yoruichi seemed to have nothing but.

"Um . . ." Orihime swallowed again, looking at Tsubaki. "Where are we going?"

"Tokyo."

"Ah—" Orihime's stomach bubbled. "Why?"

"Because this thing is going back to where it lives, and we need to go to Tokyo to get there."

Orihime again looked towards the scenery. Lines and lines of blurred lights and dark masses.

When the demon first descended from the sky—a trailing dark blob with two paws and long claws perched under it—it had descended slowly. The ground vibrated under her as it touched down mere feet in front of her. She didn't see anything that resembled eyes on the creature, but it must have been looking at her as they had all stood in silence for no more than a minute. It pawed the ground in front of it, the gesture truly appearing as if it were telling her to come here. The thought terrified her. However, her fairies convinced her it was okay to get close to the thing and, once she got herself prepared for the trip, they helped her get on the thing's back.

It had risen in the air as slowly as it had descended, and Baigon and Hinagiku created the dome around her when it was clear they would be ascending over the buildings. The lacking light at such heights was dizzying, and Orihime was equally scared they would run into something as she was this demon might turn on them and flip itself over so they'd fall. She would need to ask her fairies why they were so certain she should trust this thing when she had just started taking demons as a serious threat, but she instead needed to put all her faith that this was all for Inuyasha and she was on her way to help him.

How bad was the situation if it had come to this?

"Are we going to make it in time?" Orihime asked Tsubaki.

He huffed, a gruff laugh. "Does it really matter? You can resurrect the dead now."

Orihime paled, looking forward again. Even if she could, did that mean Inuyasha was . . . ?

Inuyasha found it hard to recover, and he found it even harder to rest.

He was lucid enough that he remembered the immense pain he felt coming from his shoulder was because of—

—that idiot Koga—

—Jakken controlling Sesshomaru's beast. That was all fine and dandy. Kagome had patched him up and he just needed time to rest so that his wounds would heal, but he couldn't properly rest. From the cave entrance came a mixture of noises as his friends defended themselves from the steady flow of demons that were flocking towards them.

"You keep your filthy claws away from Kagome!" he heard Koga yell.

And therein lied the biggest problem. If Koga was still here and demons were swarming like this, he must've still had those shards. For all Inuyasha knew, Jakken was still out there, too, and the very last thing he needed today was for his brother to make an appearance. He couldn't let Sesshomaru get all those shards and rescue his friends again.

Inuyasha groaned, using all his strength and pushing past all the pain that radiated through him to sit up. He panted as he sat up, sweat rolling down his body. His torso was exposed, his uppermost clothing pulled down. The fire he remembered earlier in the day was just embers now, but it helped him see the Tessaiga next to him. He clutched it around the hilt and began the agonizingly infuriating process of standing up. His left arm was not functioning how he needed to, so he had to rely solely on his right hand and arm while fighting through the pain and overwhelming fatigue. His anger and irritation fueled him more than anything every time he would yell out or grunt involuntarily.

When he was finally on his feet, he stood, slightly hunched over, using his sword to support most of his weight. By now, he was dripping with sweat, and he felt more anger rise when he felt as though he would fall over again.

"Don't you fucking dare," he panted to himself, forcing himself to step forward.

He staggered his way to the mouth of the cave, leaning against the rocky entrance. He fought to catch his breath as he looked at the situation before him. Kagome was feet in front of the cave's entrance, a bow ready to be fired in case a demon got close enough; Shippo was at her feet, scaring off some of the enemies by throwing out enchanted toys that transformed into large creatures.

Inuyasha wondered if Kagome was getting low on arrows.

Miroku was in the process of sucking in demons with his Wind Tunnel. Sango's weapon roughly planted in the ground followed a moment later by the demon slayer on the back of Kirara.

Inuyasha looked around, his vision not all that focused and his arm throbbing. His arm felt as though it were actively decaying at the shoulder, and it hurt more than he could comprehend.

"Hey!"

A gust of air caused Inuyasha to shield his eyes. The wind stopped abruptly to his left. Koga looked at Inuyasha with his usual scowl, though Inuyasha didn't notice the slight unease.

"You . . . don't look—"

Shippo gasped, wide green eyes staring at Inuyasha in horror. "Your arm!"

Kagome turned, barely lowering her bow and arrow, but a lump caught in her throat. Inuyasha's entire left arm up to his shoulder had turned a dark color. She couldn't tell how bad it was in the low light, but it was a noticeable difference compared to the rest if his body. The bandages she had wrapped around his shoulder had already bled through, and the bandages were beginning to sag.

Inuyasha decided he couldn't think too much about their reactions. He looked at Koga, forcing his voice to be as even as possible despite needing to breathe deeper. "D'ya still have that staff?"

"What?" Koga's unease turned into confusion. "No, I gave the damned thing back."

"And the shards?" Inuyasha pushed.

Koga huffed, aggravated. "I'm not handing them over, if that's what you're getting at, mutt. I don't care how decayed you get."

"Then go somewhere else," Inuyasha spat. "The demons are gonna keep comin' if you have that many on you."

Koga yelled indignantly. "I'm not leaving Kagome in the middle of danger! Who do you think I am? You?"

"If you want to keep her safe," Inuyasha snapped, "then you'll get the hell out of here. She's almost outta arrows and yer not gonna be able to protect her once that happens!" Inuyasha's legs buckled, causing him to fall to one knee.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome went to him, dropping her weapons near Shippo and helping to support the half-demon, who was having trouble remaining upright. She put his good arm around her neck and carefully lifted him to his feet. She could feel the sweat on him and was alarmed by how warm and shaky he felt. "You need to lie back down," she insisted.

Inuyasha huffed, glaring at Koga. "Neither of us . . . are gonna be able to protect her . . . if you don't go!"

Koga grit his teeth. He looked at Kagome, who was beginning to have dark circles under her eyes. He looked at the small fox demon, who was standing tall but shivering like he had a bad illness; Koga noticed Kagome's weapon next to the child, and she only had two arrows left. He looked over to where the demon slayer and the monk were still fighting. He then looked at the steady stream of demons that continued to come through the forest both on land and through air.

He cursed.

"You better do your part," Koga warned. He ran from the group, a large air cyclone forming around him and pulling in demons that were unfortunate enough to be close to it and violently shooting them in all directions. Gradually, the remainder of the demons gave chase.

Inuyasha watched the hoard go, only slightly relieved. Koga having the shards was definitely better than Sesshomaru, but it still annoyed Inuyasha that he handed over so many shards to any rival.

"Are you guys alright?!"

Inuyasha, Kagome, and Shippo looked over to see Miroku and Sango running their way.

"And where's Koga going?" Sango asked. "Do we need to help him or . . . ?"

"He'll be fine," Inuyasha huffed, a slight wheeze in his voice.

When Sango and Miroku reached them, concern and slight repulsion flashed over their faces.

"Inuyasha . . ." Sango started. She looked at Kagome, not really sure why, and looked back at him. "Are you . . . okay?"

"No," he said, "but what else is new?" He swayed, shaking his head to see clearer.

"We should get you back inside," Miroku said cautiously.

Inuyasha fully agreed.

Maybe a little too much because everything went black.

When the blob demon finally descended, Orihime immediately recognized the shrine. Her heart began to pound with a new kind of nervousness.

The demon slowed its pace as it approached the shrine doors. Orihime was prepared to get off, but the dome around her did not lower. Instead, Tsubaki zipped through the barrier and opened the doors of the shrine before zipping back onto her shoulder. The demon eased itself into the shrine, its shape squeezing through the entrance without breaking or cracking the frame. It circled the room for three rotations before diving into the well that connected to the Feudal Era.

Orihime's stomach dropped at the sudden plummet. She gripped the malleable skin of the demon to steady herself. The bright lights whizzed by her in a blur of color and flashes, and the weightlessness made her stomach feel as though it would release its contents.

One moment they're zooming downwards, and a moment later, they were zooming skywards. Orihime screamed at the change in gravity and gasped once they left the enclosed space of the well and thrust into open air. Trees, grass, and foliage covered the landscape as far as the eye could see. The demon lowered to about three feet off the ground and began to travel at a moderate pace in one direction, apparently in no rush any longer. The dome around her disappeared, and all her fairies appeared around her, marveling at the change in era.

"This is the past, huh?" Lily said. They all listened to the chattering and buzzing of the insects. "It's loud but . . . not."

"No technology," Tsubaki said. "Quiet is actually quiet here. Be worried if it goes dead silent."

"Um," Orihime said, not sure who to direct the question to, "where do we go now? The . . . demon has slowed down a lot." She looked down when she felt a tiny hand on her arm: Ayame. "I . . . see."

Ayame had used her new ability to communicate with the demon, and it conveyed to her that it didn't know where to go because it had stopped receiving orders from Orihime.

"I don't know how I gave it orders the first time," Orihime admitted.

"You've been wanting to see that Inuyasha for days now," Tsubaki said, "but it wasn't until you felt that link tonight that I could sense where he was. It stopped once we came through that well, so you gotta get that link back."

"Are you able to control it, then?" Orihime asked.

"Something like that. Kind of a group effort, right, Ayame?"

Ayame touched Orihime's arm once more to explain. Tsubaki was attached to Orihime's wants and desires. Her desire to see Inuyasha and the link that was formed allowed Tsubaki to be able to track where Inuyasha was, to an extent. Ayame had felt the demon asking who was calling it before it even arrived. Whether that was Orihime's doing or Tsubaki's was still an unknown.

Orihime paled a bit. "But I don't know how I did it the first time."

Tsubaki looked at her. "You wanted training, right?"

Shun'ō flew in front of Tsubaki. "Don't start that now! You brought us here. Now is not the time to not know where we're going."

Tsubaki shrugged. "Yet here we are. Sucks, huh?"

Lily spoke up before Shun'ō could explode. "You sure you don't feel anything, Hime?"

Orihime didn't know how to answer that. She definitely didn't feel like she knew which way to go, but it would be too much to say that because she was realizing that finding Inuyasha would rely on her regardless. She did feel something weird tonight and it got her this far, so she had to be able to do it again.

She looked down at her hands, squinting as she tried to focus on something. Was it like meditating? Was it like praying in reverse? What exactly was she supposed to do or feel?

Her head snapped up, her breath catching in her throat. She looked around her, feeling multiple presences.

"What is it?" Tsubaki stood, feeling it, too. "An ambush?"

Her barrier went back up, her remaining fairies crowding around her.

Barking and howling began to creep over the insect sounds.

Orihime gripped the demon once more. "Please fly higher."

The demon did so, ascending rapidly and breaking branches along the way. It zoomed in one direction, which was towards the barking and howling. Orihime didn't know if that was the direction they should be going or if that's a direction she even intended to go.

"More demons that way," Tsubaki said, amused. "Animal types and . . . Hm." Tsubaki stared curiously in that direction. It was a group of large animals on four legs, and then some . . . not on four legs. "Keep going that way."

The blob demon zoomed to the point the scenery became a blur once again. Orihime closed her eyes to ease the motion sickness she experienced. They flew this way for a long time before she finally felt the pace begin to slow once again. Orihime opened her eyes, and the feeling she felt before they took flight was stronger now.

It was fear and confusion.

"Look at that," Tsuabki said.

Orihime looked where he was pointing. There was a group running in their direction on the ground below. She leaned closer, straining her eyes, and the demon continued to fly and descend a few more feet.

It was a pack of wolves and two . . . humans?