Chapter Six

Sango returned from her bath not long after Kagome, Miroku, and Kaede had settled around the pit fire in Kaede's hut. Shippou was still sleeping and Sango commented that it was the first time she'd seen him sleep all week. Kagome blushed at the comment and lowered her head, apologizing softly for the problems her absence had caused.

"It's not your fault, Kagome," Kaede reassured her. "There were other factors too, other people involved that shifted the situation into what it has become. The best we can do is getting back to finding the jewel." She paused and Kagome noticed that Miroku and Sango seemed to look away at Kaede's mention of the Shikon-no-Tama.

Prompted by this Kagome turned to the old woman, "did something happen while I was gone." Just to make matters worse, she thought.

Kaede sighed heavily, as though feeling her age then looked Kagome straight in the eyes. "Kikyo stole what shards of the Jewel we had. After you left, InuYasha went out hunting the shards alone with her and came back completely empty handed. We'd decided to let him hold on to some of the shards we had since he was the only person who could travel through the well to you. He said he'd go through again to bring you the shards after he'd collected some more."

"Again?" Kagome asked.

Kaede's gaze shifted to Sango and then Miroku before she continued, "Kikyo attacked two days ago. She used her dead souls to immobilize us and then steal the shards. We haven't seen her since."

There seemed to be a strange silence among them then. Kagome was amazed that so much had gone on while she was away. She knew she had needed the break but apparently it had not been a good time. Then there was also the mystery of when InuYasha had come to see her. Had it been right after Kikyo had betrayed him, had stolen the shards? Or had it been earlier or perhaps sometime when she was out with Hojo? The possibility of InuYasha seeing her with Hojo scared her for Hojo's safety. She knew the half-demon had a horrible sense of possession when it came to anything he considered his property, people included. She didn't put it past him to scare Hojo off so she would not become distracted.

Her panic coming to a head, Kagome rounded on the priest and demanded know when InuYasha had first come for her.

"Well, the morning after you left." His gaze did not shift, asked her silently to verify what InuYasha had said. "He told us he saw you and a friend of yours at the Goshinboku tree."

Kagome blushed and decided to come clean. "He's more than a friend, Miroku. He has been helping me all week to pull it together, to get everything straightened out. I don't want anyone to be confused about the situation though," she paused, looking each one in the eye, and then glancing at the sleeping kitsune still nestled in her lap. "He's important to me and I will probably be traveling back more often to see him."

"Why?" asked Kaede.

"Because I need him," Kagome said, looking the old woman directly in the eye. "He's been a part of me for a long time but now he's a critical element in my life. If I lose hold of what we've created, if I don't give all I can, then I might as well not exist in that world at all."

She looked at Miroku and Sango in turn, trying to convey to them what it was she felt. She was their friend, and to Shippou she was much more, but her life was not in this time. She could have friends and associations here but her true life had to be in her own time. She was born there and she would hopefully die there. There would be no living in the past, no loving in the past, no staying in the past. Eventually the quest would end and she would go home.

The small group seemed to understand this, having realized it long before, but never speaking out loud what they all would push into the back of their minds. It was out now, though, and as the truth of it sunk in, there was only one thing left to do. Tell InuYasha.